Cap. 656 Art. 2Interpretation.  Cap. 386.    Cap. 371. Cap. 376.  Cap. 330.

(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires:

"charter" means the document to be drawn up by each lending institution in accordance with article 17;

"credit application" means an application submitted by a customer or potential customer of a lending institution for the purpose of obtaining a credit facility;

"credit facility" means the lending of a sum of money by way of an advance, overdraft or loan, or any other line of credit required by the eligible applicant for working capital requirements or other general business purposes but excludes discounting of bills of exchange and promissory notes, guarantees, indemnities, acceptances, bills of exchange endorsed pour aval and financial leasing;

"credit reviewer" means any body or other person designated for this purpose by the Minister, by notice in the Gazzette made in accordance with this Act, which shall be responsible for overseeing the implementation of the Office and shall have the functions established in this Act or any regulations made thereunder;

"customer" and, or "potential customer" means a customer or a potential customer of a lending institution;

"durable medium" means any instrument which enables the storage of information addressed personally to a particular person in a way accessible for future reference and for a period of time adequate for the purposes of the information contained therein and allows the unchanged reproduction of the information stored;

"eligible applicant" means:

(a) a trader who is not a member in a commercial partnership and who resides in Malta;

(b) a commercial partnership constituted in

Malta in accordance with the Companies Act, or any law which may from time to time be applicable; or

(c) any other person as the Minister may from time to time prescribe by regulations made under this Act;

"eligible application" means an application submitted by an eligible applicant who:

(a) has received a formal refusal by a lending institution following a request for a credit facility;

(b) has not received a final decision by a lending institution within the time period stipulated by the lending institution in accordance with its charter following a request for a credit facility by the eligible applicant;

(c) has been formally notified, through a durable medium, by a lending institution that an existing credit facility has been withdrawn or reduced; or

(d) has received formal refusal, through a durable medium, by a lending institution following a request for the restructuring of an existing credit facility;

(e) has not received a final decision by a lending institution within the time period stipulated by the lending institution in accordance with its charter following a request for the restructuring of an existing credit facility:

Provided that "eligible application" shall not include:

(a) decisions by lending institutions to refuse applications for credit facilities due to restrictions emanating from the European Union state aid rules;

(b) decisions by lending institutions relating to non-performing credit facilities;

(c) decisions by lending institutions refusing, withdrawing, reducing or refusing to restructure credit facilities in excess of two million euro (€2,000,000);

(d) applications refusing, withdrawing, reducing or refusing to restructure credit facilities of less than five thousand euro (€5,000); and

(e) decisions by lending institutions to refuse applications for credit facilities on the basis that granting such facilities would breach anti-money laundering and combating the funding of terrorism legislation, any implementing procedures, guidelines and any international agreements binding on the lending institutions;

"lending institution" means any entity licensed by the

Malta Financial Services Authority to carry out the business of banking in terms of the Banking Act or to grant credit facilities in terms of the Financial Institutions Act;

"Malta Financial Services Authority" means the authority established in terms of the Malta Financial Services Authority Act;

"Minister" means the Minister responsible for the economy;

"non-performing facility" means any credit facility that is classified as a non-performing exposure in accordance with the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/451 of 17 December 2020 laying down implementing technical standards for the application of Regulation (EU) No. 575/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to supervisory reporting of institutions and repealing Implementing Regulation (EU) No. 680/2014;

"Office" means the Credit Review Office established in accordance with article 3;

"Regulation (EU) 2016/679" means Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation).

(2) Words and expressions used in this Act and in any regulations made thereunder with reference to any other law shall, so far as necessary, have the same meaning as assigned to them in the respective law.

(3) If there is any conflict between the English and Maltese texts in this Act and in any regulations made thereunder, the English text shall prevail.