ZEK and IKO explained

The IKO and the ZEK are the two Swiss credit databases that lenders use. The IKO is the information office the Consumer Credit Act requires: a lender must report the consumer credits it grants and look you up there before it lends. The ZEK is a private association whose members from the financial services sector share information about people who apply for or hold credits, leasing contracts and cards. You can order your own extract from each, free of charge, and it comes by post.

ZEK and IKO side by side

What the IKO is

The IKO exists because the law says it must. The Consumer Credit Act (KKG, in French and Italian LCC) asks the lenders who grant consumer credits to run a shared information office (Art. 23). The IKO association was founded on 30 May 2002 and started work on 1 January 2003. The Federal Office of Justice supervises it and approves its statutes (KKG Art. 23, VKKG Art. 3a).

What lenders must report to the IKO (KKG Art. 25 to 27):

• every consumer credit they grant
• payments in arrears that add up to at least 10 % of the net amount of the credit
• for a leasing contract: the amount, the term and the monthly payment, and when three payments are outstanding
• for a credit or customer card: the amount owed once you have used the credit option three times in a row, unless it is under CHF 3’000

For a cash loan, the IKO holds your name, date of birth and address, the type of credit, its start and end dates, the number and size of the payments, and the gross amount including interest and costs. If you fall behind, it also holds the arrears report and its date.

What lenders do with it. Before granting a consumer credit, a lender must ask the IKO about you, and it must do so again when a credit is renewed or replaced. The credits it finds there count in the check of whether you can afford the new one (KKG Art. 28). Only lenders and crowdlending platforms working under the Act can query the IKO, and only for that check. Besides them, a debt restructuring service named by your canton can see your data in a single case, if you agree (KKG Art. 24).

How long it keeps data. The IKO stores running contracts only. When a contract ends and the lender deregisters it, the IKO deletes it within 14 days.

What the ZEK is

The ZEK is an association under the Swiss Civil Code and a non-profit organisation. It was founded in 1968 and works across Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Only its authorised members from the financial services sector can query the database.

What it records:

• your name, first name, date of birth and address
• requests for credit, and the contracts that follow
• cash, fixed-term, instalment, overdraft and salary credits
• hire-purchase and leasing contracts
• credit and customer cards, including card blocks
• official information, such as bankruptcies and guardianship measures

Your application is recorded too. ZEK members report credit requests as well as the contracts that result from them. Members must tell you, and ask for your consent, before they report to the ZEK or look you up there.

Members always report or query for a cash loan or instalment credit with a total to repay above CHF 1’000, paid in instalments over at least 12 months, and for a leasing contract of at least CHF 40 a month.

How long ZEK entries stay

Each entry has a set retention period. When it ends, the entry is deleted automatically on the following weekend.

Card blocks have their own periods, from 6 months to 10 years depending on the reason. The ZEK publishes the full list on its website.

Is it bad to be in the ZEK or the IKO?

No. Both offices say the same thing: an entry about you is not negative as long as you meet your obligations under your credit, leasing and card contracts. If you pay your instalments on time, the database shows that you pay as agreed, and that counts in your favour.

What a lender looks at is what the entry says: how much you already repay each month, whether a request was turned down, and whether a contract ended with arrears or a loss. Each lender then decides what it accepts.

How to see your own entries

You can ask each office for an extract (Datenbankauszug, your own record). It costs nothing.

1. Go to «Einträge zu meiner Person» (entries about me) on zek.ch and on iko-info.ch. The forms are in German, French and Italian.
2. Fill in the online form with your current address. The office must be able to check that this address is yours.
3. If you want the extract sent abroad or to a c/o address, order it by post instead: a signed paper form with a copy of an official ID.
4. Wait for the letter. Both offices usually prepare the extract on the day the order arrives, and for data protection reasons they send it by letter post only.

Order both. They are separate databases, and one can hold an entry the other does not.

Your right to see this data also comes from the Federal Act on Data Protection (Art. 25): anyone may ask whether data about them is processed. The answer must be free, with some exceptions, and is in general given within 30 days.

If an entry is wrong

The member that reported the entry is responsible for it being correct. Your extract names that member.

1. Contact the member first and ask for a correction. Both offices say this is the simplest way.
2. If you cannot agree, write to the ZEK or the IKO by post and include your documents. The office then takes it up with the member.
3. An entry can only be deleted early if it is wrong or faulty. A correct entry stays until its retention period ends.

If an entry is correct but holds you back

Neither office deletes a correct entry early, so time is part of the answer. In the meantime:

• Settle arrears where you can. Then keep paying on time. Both offices record payment as agreed in your favour.
• Look at your whole picture. A lender can also ask for your debt collection extract, and it checks your budget. Our guide What lenders check explains each record.
• Be wary of offers «without ZEK». A lender that grants a consumer credit under the Act must query the IKO first. Read Loans «without a credit check»: what’s true before you answer such an offer.
• If payments are already hard, a new loan can make it worse. Non-profit debt advice services can look at all your options with you: see Debt help in Switzerland.

If you also have a Betreibung (debt collection), read Getting a loan with a Betreibung.

ZEK, IKO and Swizeo

When you apply, Swizeo checks with credit offices only with your consent.

Next step

See what we ask for and why before you apply, on the personal loan page.