The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection believes that the news headlines in the printed media and the frequent statements by the citizens and the banks regarding the selling of citizens’ bank debts, at discounted prices, to collection agencies, shows that it is necessary for the state to devote much more attention to personal data protection.

In this regard, the Commissioner Mr. Rodoljub Sabic also stated the following:

“For the citizens, of course, the most important aspect of such transactions is the financial, the material one. In this regard, it is absolutely right that the banks, under certain conditions, stated in the provisions of the Law on Obligations and Contracts, can sell citizens’ debts to collection agencies or other similar institutions, but, also, it should be clear that the new creditor cannot unilaterally change the conditions, if those conditions would ultimately disadvantage the client, and that the debtor ought to be informed of the aforementioned change in debt ownership.

From the viewpoint of the rights of the citizens, it is interesting that, in the process of debt assumption, it is common that certain aspects of personal data are also given to the new creditor. With this in mind, a few basic things should be taken into consideration.

Firstly, it should be ensured, that when the data is given to the new creditor, meaning the new data controller, the data provided should be only that which is necessary for the fulfillment of the controller’s tasks, in essence, for attempting to settle the debts, not other pieces of data which the banks might have gathered.

Secondly, the data controllers are obliged to fulfill all of the legal measures of personal data protection, and the data controller is obliged to, in the process of debt trade, inform the new data controller of the necessary protection measures that have been undertaken.

Thirdly, it should be noted that, when working with the clients, our banks are applying the laws that have been adopted before the Law on Personal Data Protection and the current Constitution came into force and these laws are not harmonized with them. In this regard, the personal data collection and processing is conducted according to the general business terms and conditions, and not, as it is stated in Article 42 of the Constitution, according to the conditions set in law. That is why the Commissioner will forward adequate initiatives to the Ministry of Justice and the National Bank of Serbia to change and amend the Law on Obligations and Contracts and the Law on Banks.”