Banking and Finance law in Belgium
Droit bancaire et financier en Belgique – Bank- en financieel recht in België
In an earlier post, we set out the bank's obligations when faced with a first demand guarantee. A recent Belgian appellate decision, discussed below, is also a useful reminder of the rules on governing law and jurisdiction in international banking law, as applied to bank guarantees. A decision on a manifestly abusive call on a... Continue Reading →
Opinion piece by one of this site's authors, published in the newspaper L'Echo on 1 June 2022. A more detailed analysis is available on this site. On 1 May 2022, L'Echo published an analysis of de-risking, the term used for the banker's reduction of its exposure to money laundering and the resulting unilateral termination, by... Continue Reading →
This article is part of our International Sanctions and Restrictive Measures guide. Note for readers: the specific sanctions measures described here date from late February 2022 and have since been considerably expanded. The analysis of the sanctions regime and of the role of banks, below, remains of general application. Following Russia’s recognition of the Donetsk... Continue Reading →
In an article of November 2021 on the basic banking service for businesses, meant to resolve the difficulties and refusals businesses face when opening a bank account, we discussed the liability of the Belgian State towards businesses left unable to open an account. We also raised the prospect of the State being held liable for... Continue Reading →
A general duty of vigilance over one's bank accounts In banking law, every client, like any prudent and diligent person, must pay attention to his bank accounts and to the transactions passing through them. Every client must also collect his account statements regularly and promptly dispute any abnormal or unauthorised transactions. Silence, or the absence... Continue Reading →
Update 14/02/2022: the Belgian State has just been held liable for negligence in implementing the basic banking service, following numerous bank account closures. See our analysis of de-risking and the related legal liabilities. How the basic banking service for businesses came about In November 2020, we published an article on the Act of 8 November... Continue Reading →
Bank third-party attachment A third-party attachment is, in short, an attachment levied by a creditor in the hands of its debtor's debtor. It is common in banking law: the creditor attaches the bank (the garnishee), which holds funds of its client (the attached debtor). The bank must then freeze the debtor's accounts and declare the... Continue Reading →
This article is part of our International Sanctions and Restrictive Measures guide. A bank had suspended payment operations for the benefit of a company whose name, "Persian", evoked Iran, a country under an international sanctions regime that banks must imperatively take into account. Embargoes, money laundering and terrorist financing: heavy sanctions and obligations that override... Continue Reading →
Le Code de droit économique dispose, en son article VII.4/4, §3, que la FSMA est chargée de développer et d’exploiter un site internet dont l’accès aux consommateur est gratuit et permettant de comparer les frais pour au moins les services les plus représentatifs liés à un compte de paiement.
Le Roi devait néanmoins déterminer quels étaient lesdits services les plus représentatifs. C'est désormais chose faite.
Dans le cadre d’un programme de fidélité de voyageurs lancé par plusieurs compagnies aériennes, ces dernières ont lancé, en partenariat avec un établissement de crédit belge, une carte de crédit « co-brandée » (le nom de la banque ainsi que de la compagnie aérienne y figurent) permettant au consommateur d’accumuler des « miles » de fidélité. La réglementation relative au crédit à la consommation est d’application.
Lorsqu’un créancier saisissant entend pratiquer une saisie-arrêt en récupération de revenus périodiques non-encore échus au moment de la saisie, il lui est recommandé de mentionner expressément dans l’exploit de saisie que celle-ci est également pratiquée pour de tels revenus, au-delà des mentions formelles habituelles que ces actes contiennent généralement.
