II - CREDIT INFORMATION DATA BANK

4 - What is credit information (infomação para crédito)?
Credit information ("informação para crédito") is information that expresses identification, location, economical-financial status, payment habits, and unpaid overdue debts, arising from the relationship between people and suppliers of goods and services, and public registries and official publication, according to the Law.

5 - What is a negative entry ("negativação")? Can the information be positive?
Negative information indicates data from unpaid overdue debts, and registry of protest of securities, judicial claims, voided checks, and other registries coming from public and official sources. Data on overdue debts are forwarded, by a covenant with creditors/vendors, indicating the debtor data.

Fortunately, positive information is the vast majority. They refer to the identification, location, and economical-financial status of people. Such information is obtained directly from the people who fill up registration forms and annex documents and related vouchers, that authorize the registration of their personal data. Payment habit and commitments are also positive information.

That is the reason why positive and negative information is entered in the electronic archives of the credit information Data Bank, thus expediting and easing things for the consumer in their hire-purchases.

6 - What is the responsibility of a guarantor in a financial loan?
A guarantor is the person who guarantees a debt you have taken.
If you do not pay your debt, the guarantor shall settle it in your instead.

7 - Why do Data Banks use the CPF (National Roll of Taxpayers) and the CNPJ (National Roll of Juridical Persons) numbers to identify people and companies, respectively?
Because it is the only solution found to solve the problem of more than one person with the same name and surname (homonym, or namesake). The same goes for companies and the CNPJ.

8 - Who decides for the granting of credit?
Creditors/vendors (such as: stores, markets, Banks, etc.) seek the lowest risk during the sale of their goods or services in hire-purchases. Data banks offer only complementary information to assist their operational routines. So, the decision to grant credit belongs exclusively to the vendor of goods and services.

9 - Which situations can prompt negative entries?
The most common situations that deserve to be highlighted are:

• If, for any reason, the consumer fails to settle a debt and the person granting the credit protests such debit in a Protest Notary office, the fact is then communicated by the Protest Notary to the data bank.
• if the consumer writes a check that has no funds and such check is returned twice by the Bank marked as voided, his or her name is entered in the Registry of Issuers of Voided Checks ("Cadastro de Emitentes de Cheques sem Fundos" - CCF), of Brazil's Central Bank, which in its turns forwards the entry to the Data Banks.
• If the consumer is a defendant in a legal suit, and such suit is in regard to the collection of a debt or repossession order for goods, or also, if the consumer has shares of a company with a bankruptcy request, such information is forwarded by the Court or obtained from official publications and newsletters, and stored in the Data Bank.
• If the consumer has an unsettled debt with a federal agency for failing to pay federal taxes, tributes, or contributions, such fact, obtained through certificate or publication in an official newsletter, is entered in the Data Banks.