The Consumer Credit Directive is about transparency and creating a common credit market across the European Union. The Directive was adopted by the European Council in May 2008 and legislation implementing its provisions will come into force on 1 February 2011. Lenders can start complying now, depending also on the local application of the directive. The Consumer Credit Directive (CCD) addresses two main areas:

- The extension of the customer information and increased customer rights with key measures such as: the credit agreement must follow a strict format with 22 mandatory data elements to be inserted in the document; the customer has a right of withdrawal from an agreement within 14 days; early repayment fees are capped at one per cent of the repaid capital.

- The changes principally affect creditors but also impact to some extent credit-brokers and credit intermediaries. All those involved in lending money, or making credit available to consumers, or acting on behalf of consumers or lenders in relation to prospective credit agreements, are impacted. In the case of linked agreements a joined liability is installed between the creditor and the merchant e.g. car dealer.

Financial institutions are keen to find a proven solution that will ensure compliance throughout the phased process. Linedata Ekip, with its customisable and integrated workflow, ensures credit and leasing professionals simple and fast access to data as and when they need it, and easy and updated compliance.

"Under this Directive, business processes and communications with borrowers will fundamentally change," said João Violante, Leasing and Credit Product Manager for Linedata. "As part of our longstanding commitment, we are working with the leasing and credit community to address these revisions thanks to our integrated and flexible workflow tool. We are actively monitoring for any new decrees so that we can adjust the parameters of our solution and tailor our product to meet our cliients' and future clients' needs."

Already deployed in 22 countries by more than 100 clients, Linedata Ekip uses a set of simple parameters to enable clients to effectively self-comply, taking away any concept of a heavy workload. Linedata Ekip capabilities spans the front, middle and back office providing comprehensive business coverage from marketing to accounting.