Regulating the Regime for the Assignment and Servicing of Bank Credits

The Bank of Portugal published on December 3 in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Portugal Notice 6/2025 (“Notice”), which governs the main aspects of the Regime for the Assignment and Servicing of Bank Credits (“RCGCB”), approved by Decree-Law 103/2025 of September 11. For further details, see our Legal Flash Transposition of NPLs credit servicers and credit purchasers directive.

The Notice regulates various aspects of the RCGCB, which we summarize below:

Authorization procedures for credit servicers

The Notice establishes the assessment procedures and criteria, the required application information (Annex II), and the applicable forms (Annexes I, III and IV).

Applications must be submitted through SIRES (Sistema de Informação Relevante de Entidades Supervisadas -  Relevant Information System for Supervised Entities). However, the Notice provides an exceptional regime allowing applications and reports to be submitted by mail, but only in cases of technical outages or force majeure.

Public and internal registers of credit servicers

The Notice specifies the information required for the following registers:

• The public register of credit servicers: Accessible to all interested parties, this register includes identification, authorization history and Member States of operation.
• The internal register maintained by the Bank of Portugal: This register, intended for supervisory purposes, contains details on management bodies, qualified holdings and chains of control.

Credits services must report any changes within 30 days and submit an annual report in April. The annual report must provide updated information on qualified shareholdings and management bodies.

SIRES and formal requirements

Membership of SIRES is mandatory for entities headquartered in Portugal. Only the individual questionnaire (Annex IV) may be completed either in Portuguese or English.

Requirements for management bodies of credit servicers

The Notice requires that directors possess, individually and as a whole, the necessary knowledge and experience to ensure sound and prudent management and fair and diligent protection and treatment for debtors. Criteria for assessing directors’ suitability are defined, along with internal policies for fit and proper assessment.

Credit servicers must evaluate these requirements using a proportionality principle, weighing various criteria established in the Notice.

Governance systems and internal control mechanisms

The Notice regulates general requirements for governance systems, including an organizational structure with clearly defined reporting lines, competencies of each body, structural unit, function, and cooperation, as outlined in an organizational structure manual. Also, the Notice specifies the internal control mechanisms to ensure effective risk management, sound accounting practices, regulatory compliance, and conduct standards.

Crossborder activities

The Notice regulates procedures for credit servicers authorized in Portugal intending to operate in other Member States, as well as for registering credit servicers authorized in other Member States seeking to operate in Portugal. The Bank of Portugal is responsible for notifying the host authority and updating the register accordingly.

The Notice outlines the required information to be reported, ensuring alignment with European Union (“EU”) requirements for cooperation and transparency.

Subcontracting credit servicing activities

The Notice specifies the required form and content for mandatory reporting to the Bank of Portugal on the subcontracting of credit servicing activities. This includes identifying the service providers and detailing the subcontracted activities.

The Notice incorporates the European Banking Authority (“EBA”) guidelines for assessing the suitability of credit servicers’ management bodies (EBA/GL/2023/09) and for establishing and maintaining national lists or registers of credit servicers (EBA/GL/2024/02). For further details on the EBA Guidelines, please refer to our post The evolution of the NPL Directive.

The transitional provisions established in the Notice will apply until the electronic forms are fully functional on SIRES.

As the Notice entered into force on December 10, 2025 (the date when authorization becomes mandatory), credit servicers must take the following steps:

(i)           Prepare the SIRES authorization dossier: Ensure the dossier is complete and formally compliant, including apostilles, certified translations and details on qualified shareholdings.

(ii)         Conduct and document fitness and knowledge assessments: Evaluate knowledge/experience and fitness of management bodies at both individual and collective levels, address deficiencies through corrective measures before submitting the application, and reflect findings in reports, internal policies and the collective assessment matrix.

(iii)        Approve governance manuals and internal control policies: Adopt the organizational structure manual and internal control policies and procedures, ensuring periodic reviews and alignment with the principle of proportionality.

(iv)        Map and prepare reports: reports on crossborder activities and subcontracting, including contact details and complaint channels, and schedule reporting deadlines.

(v)         Organize document governance: To reduce the risk of procedural delays, implement governance mechanisms that support register updates, audits and fitness reassessments.