Italian Credit Register (Centrale dei Rischi, restricted access)

Confidential supervisory data: not exercised here

The Italian Credit Register is confidential supervisory data held by the Bank of Italy. It is not for sale and not publicly downloadable: it carries no provenance badge because there is no access path we can run here. Researchers reach it only through a Bank of Italy affiliation or an approved restricted-data arrangement, inside a secure environment, with output subject to disclosure review. The page documents what the collection is and the gotchas; treat it as unverified. This is the honest grade under the institute’s Verified discipline.

The Centrale dei Rischi is the Bank of Italy’s credit register: banks report their exposures to each borrower above a reporting threshold, so the register gives firm-bank loan quantities and interest rates across the banking system. Two companion Bank of Italy sources are accessed under the same terms: the Or.So. register of bank board members (who sits on which bank board, at quarterly frequency) and the supervisory reports (bank and banking-group balance sheets). Together they support credit-supply and bank-competition research. A paper we distill uses them: Barone, Schivardi & Sette use the Credit Register for quarterly firm-bank loan quantities and gross interest rates on overdraft lines, for relationships with total lending above 75,000 euros (2011Q1 to 2014Q4, 3.5 million firm-bank-quarters), Or.So. for interlocking bank directorships, and the supervisory reports for bank balance sheets.

• Cost: not for sale. Restricted-access confidential supervisory data.
• Collector: Bank of Italy (Centrale dei Rischi; Or.So.; supervisory reports).
• Coverage: exposures above the reporting threshold across Italian banks, monthly/quarterly; the threshold has changed over time, so small exposures move in and out of scope.

Access (restricted)

• No public download. The microdata is confidential and is not posted.
• Through a Bank of Italy affiliation or approved program. Access is limited to researchers at the Bank of Italy or others granted entry to the restricted data, worked inside a secure environment with output subject to disclosure review.

Gotchas (the ones that bite pipelines)

These are the failure modes to expect; they are documented, not verified here.

• The reporting threshold censors small exposures. Only exposures above the threshold are reported, and the threshold was lowered over time; a borrower can appear or disappear for reporting reasons, not economic ones. Do not read a missing exposure as no lending.
• Drawn versus granted. The register distinguishes credit granted (the commitment) from credit drawn (utilization), especially for revolving overdraft lines; conflating them mismeasures both supply and demand. Pick the concept that matches your question.
• Interest rates cover specific products. Rate data is reported for particular loan categories (the overdraft/revolving lines), not every exposure; do not treat a rate field as the firm’s overall borrowing cost.
• Identifier joins. Banks (and groups) and firms must be linked across the Credit Register, Or.So., the supervisory reports, and any firm-financials source (such as the Cerved firm database); mergers and group restructurings break the links. Verify the crosswalk and consolidate groups deliberately.
• Bank versus banking group. Reporting is at the bank level but ownership is at the group level; intra-group exposures and shared boards require the group perimeter. Decide consolidation explicitly.
• Output is disclosure-reviewed and cannot be redistributed. Results leave the secure environment only after review, and the microdata itself cannot be shared.

Citation

Cite the source, e.g.: Centrale dei Rischi (Bank of Italy), confidential supervisory data; accessed under restricted-data arrangement, YYYY-MM-DD; cite Or.So. and the supervisory reports likewise. State the sample window, the threshold in force, and the drawn-versus-granted concept used.