The Centralised System to Identify Limited Amount Credit Risks was set up with the resolution approved by the CICR (Inter-ministerial Committee for Loans and Savings) held on 3rd May 1999 which entrusted the relative management to SIA, in agreement with the Bank of Italy and the Italian Banking Association.

The objective of the Service is to take a census of the lines of credit of the entire banking and financial system, for an amount below the minimum limit foreseen for the Bank of Italy Risks Service (currently Euros 75,000) and exceeding the maximum limit established for consumer credit transactions (currently Euro 31.246).

The Service targets all the brokers that already notify the Bank of Italy Risks Service providing details of the lines of credit granted to their customers, and namely:

• Banks registered in the list (Article 13);
• Financial companies (Article 65, paragraph 1, sub-sections a and b);
• Financial brokers registered in the special list laid down in Article 107 of the Consolidated Act of laws relating to banking and loan business.

The Service represents an extremely interesting source of information by concentrating the information originating from the entire banking and financial system, also considering the new risk management procedures that the banks will be required to implement in view of the coming into force of the Basle Agreement, since this represents a valid tool capable of increasing the capacity to assest the credit risk of customers.
In fact, the service enables:

• the global risk position of customers that have already been granted lines of credit to be monitored;
• to obtain details of the global position of new potential customers.

FUNCTIONAL DESCRIPTION
The Service is structured to manage the following factors:

• database management: the brokers notify SIA with the personal details of the parties that have already been granted lines of credit (natural persons, parties other than natural persons and joint accounts) and they receive an unambiguous identification code
• "preliminary information" management: this functionality enables brokers to consult the database to obtain information relative to the risk positions of new potential customers;
• amounts management: the banking system provides SIA with monthly notifications regarding current risks, 'centralises' the information and forwards the Customised Return Flow to all the notifying brokers.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION
The subject application consists of a central archive managed by SIA and a peripheral section resident with the brokers (peripheral SW).
The structure of the application has been designed with features that enable the following:
to process the messages and provide the information reasonably rapidly;

• to manage in deferred mode only cases that cannot be resolved with on-line functions due to their functional features or because of technical restraints;
• to render the functions as independent as possible from actions required by the user.

The exchange of information is achieved by interaction of the central system with the peripheral systems, via the RNI (National Interbank Network).
In particular:

•  the data relating to the database, the preliminary information and the adjustments to the amounts is obtained via message switching;
• the monthly notifications forwarded by the brokers and the information contained in the Customised Return Flow are acquired via file transfer.

A secure data encryption system is adopted to protect the confidentially of the information exchanged.