What is creditworthiness?

Published: 12/4/2018
Assessment of creditworthiness is made by credit institutions

Creditworthiness means an assessment of a potential debtors' ability to assume the obligation of regular annuity/instalment payment under a specific loan amount. The procedure of assessment and the elements assessed in the calculation of creditworthiness are generally defined in a credit institution's internal bylaws which may be influenced by provisions of laws and related decisions. For example, under the Foreclosure Act a part of salary equal to the minimum living costs is exempted from foreclosure. A decision on whether a consumer is creditworthy or not may only be made by banks or credit institutions. Banks and credit institutions, as well as consumers themselves, have to take care that consumers do not get over-indebted by taking out a new loan. It should be noted that banks, when deciding on a client's creditworthiness, include the current account overdraft facility and credit card debt (limits) in the existing debt. In the assessment of creditworthiness banks use data on monetary obligations of consumers which are processed and exchanged in the Registry basic system by means of the Croatian Registry of Credit Obligations (HROK).

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