Banking and Finance law in Belgium
Droit bancaire et financier en Belgique – Bank- en financieel recht in België
Discover how alternative compensation plans like Stock-Option Plans (SOP) and Hedged-Stock Option Plans (HESOP) can attract and retain employees. Understand the Belgian tax implications and legal considerations surrounding these plans.
May a bank be held liable when it refuses to grant a credit, or refuses to extend an existing one? The question matters to lawyers, bankers and in-house counsel alike. Freedom of contract is a fundamental principle of Belgian civil law. A bank is not obliged to finance every applicant. But can it abuse its... Continue Reading →
A bank that agrees to grant credit to a client is bound by certain obligations. Failure to meet these obligations may give rise to quasi-delictual civil liability. In the context of so-called “regulated” credit — such as mortgage loans and consumer credit, both of which are governed by Book VII of the Code of Economic... Continue Reading →
Interest rate swaps (IRS) are derivative products known as hedging instruments. In a rising-rate environment, they offer the opportunity to determine and fix future costs on a credit agreement. They can also prove to be a dangerous speculative instrument. This is a brief analysis of how they work and of the legal issues they raise... Continue Reading →
This article was published in the Forum de l'Immobilier, May 2022 (Anthemis). For over twenty years, the early repayment of a credit and the amount claimed by the bank in return for that early termination, whether called reinvestment indemnity, break indemnity or funding loss, have kept business people and banking and credit lawyers busy. The... Continue Reading →
Within the Belgian courts, a large share of seriously contested credit disputes still turns on funding loss and the early repayment of fixed-term credit and loans concluded between a bank and a business before the Act of 21 December 2013 on SME financing entered into force. The issue The question is whether a business may... Continue Reading →
Through a concrete case of a lost bank card and fraudulent transactions on a client's account, we revisit the respective responsibilities of the bank and the client in payment services matters, much as in phishing cases. The client who believed his card had been swallowed A client carried out banking operations at an ATM inside... 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 →
The Belgian Act of 20 December 2020 on temporary and structural provisions in matters of justice in the context of the fight against the spread of Covid-19 affects attachments until at least 31 January 2021. Among the measures adopted: a temporary increase of the non-attachable thresholds (Article 1409 of the Judicial Code) and an extension... Continue Reading →
The Brussels attachment judge, rarely enough to be worth noting, considered a bank's termination of an investment credit granted to a business in 2010 and repayable monthly over 20 years. The business was only one instalment in arrears at the time of termination. The business had opposed the order preceding executory attachment on the mortgaged... Continue Reading →
In de juridisch-economische wereld is het een verhaal dat reeds meer dan 20 jaar duurt: kan een bank een wederbeleggingsvergoeding (funding loss) vorderen wanneer een onderneming haar krediet terugbetaalt vóór de contractueel overeengekomen termijn?
A new funding-loss judgment from the Court of Cassation (Dutch-speaking division) of 18 June 2020. In an earlier article, we reported the Cassation judgment of 27 April on the features distinguishing interest-bearing loans from credit facilities, and the possible recharacterisation of a credit as a loan. In this new judgment, the Court ruled on an... Continue Reading →
A bank is sued in liability by the joint and indivisible guarantor of a company's obligations, for having liquidated his securities portfolio, whereas the later liquidation of the debtor company would ultimately repay the bank's claim in full. The starting point: enforcing a joint and indivisible guarantee In the 1990s, Mr F., manager of a... Continue Reading →
Under Article 1 of Royal Decree No. 15 of 24 April 2020 on a temporary moratorium for businesses on enforcement and other measures during the Covid-19 crisis, it was no longer permitted, until 17 June, to seek a business's bankruptcy as a creditor, to levy a protective or executory attachment, or to terminate a credit... Continue Reading →
Many companies devise alternative remuneration plans to attract and retain their employees. One such is the Stock Option Plan (SOP), under which employees may receive options allowing them, in time, to acquire their employer's shares at a pre-set price. That exercise right usually lapses if the employee leaves the company. Belgian tax law requires the... Continue Reading →
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.
Quelques principes de responsabilité de l'intermédiaire en crédit à l'égard des documents que son client lui transmet, au détour d'une décision judiciaire
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.
