The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner has registered the new Credit Reporting Privacy Code - the code of conduct that will guide credit providers and reporting bureaus in their management of the new credit reporting rules.The code has had a long gestation; registration comes only seven weeks before the new regime takes effect. The Australian Retail Credit Association was commissioned in December 2012 to write the code and issued its first draft last April.The drafting has been controversial, with ARCA attracting a large number of highly critical submissions.ARCA's chief executive, Damian Paull, said stakeholders had very different views about how the code should be written. "We had to find the balance between those views, and the OAIC had to ensure the code reflected that balance."The new comprehensive reporting scheme will allow credit reporting agencies to add the following information to credit files: the date a credit account was opened; the type of credit account opened; the date a credit account was closed; the current limit of each open credit account; and repayment performance history.Under the current credit reporting rules, a credit reporting agency can include the following information in a credit file: payment on a credit contract is at least 60 days overdue; a cheque for A$100 or more has been dishonoured twice; a bankruptcy order has been made against the individual; a credit provider considers that the individual has committed "a serious credit infringement"; and details of any recent credit inquiries.The code will be reviewed after three years.One area that will remain contentious is the grace period before a late payment is recorded in the repayment performance history. Credit providers will be permitted to disclose that a consumer credit payment is overdue five days after the due date.Consumer groups pushed for a much longer grace period, while some credit providers argued for no grace period.Another provision that has the potential to be controversial is a rule that a credit provider cannot disclose a default if the individual has made a hardship request.Accommodation of the hardship provisions of the National Consumer Credit Protection Act in the operating rules of external dispute resolution schemes has given rise to claims that some borrowers game the system by using hardship as a way of preventing lenders from exercising their rights. Similar concerns may arise in the credit reporting environment.The code outlines the administrative burden lenders will have to take on in return for access to more comprehensive credit files. They will have to inform their customers that they are providing credit information to a credit bureau, as well as informing them of their rights to gain access to this information and have details corrected if necessary.