In February 2026, the Office of the Commissioner for Gender Equality and Equal Treatment (hereinafter the Commissioner) published a position based on a request received by the Office regarding the admissibility of using gender as a demographic characteristic in credit risk assessment. The Commissioner is an independent and impartial expert who monitors compliance with the requirements of the Equal Treatment Act and the Gender Equality Act in the Estonian society at large.
At the request of the Commissioner, attorney Reelika Rohi and sworn attorney Steven-Hristo Evestus of Sirel & Partners Law Firm prepared their own legal analysis and came to the joint conclusion that neither Estonian nor European Union legislation permits distinguishing between male and female genders in credit risk or creditworthiness assessment. This prohibition also applies in the case of a statistical scoring service that is used as input to the decision-making process of creditors. The assessment of creditworthiness must be based on objective and directly related financial indicators, such as income, liabilities and payment behaviour.
The Commissioner for Gender Equality and Equal Treatment called on creditors and scoring service providers to regularly assess the potential discriminatory impact of the models in use and to abandon the use of gender as an input to credit risk.
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