Banking and Finance law in Belgium
Droit bancaire et financier en Belgique – Bank- en financieel recht in België
In a case brought to our attention, a wealthy client sued a private bank in liability for losses on financial investments made under a discretionary portfolio-management agreement. The principle: the manager's fault cannot be inferred from the result The Court of Appeal first recalled that the manager's obligations are obligations of means, and that a... 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 →
The case: a limitation question In the late 1990s, a couple took out a mortgage credit requiring an outstanding-balance (mortgage life) insurance covering 100% on the husband's life, arranged through the lending bank. In 2004, again through the bank, the wife signed an insurance proposal covering 50% of the credit for its remaining term, while... 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 →
The indemnities claimed by credit institutions on the early termination of a pre-2014 investment credit and on early repayment still stir debate. The borrowers' strategy to avoid a large funding-loss indemnity The main stake in litigation is, for borrowers, to persuade the court to recharacterise an investment-credit agreement as an interest-bearing loan. If they succeed,... Continue Reading →
An analysis of the rules on blocking and unblocking the deceased's bank accounts and assets in a succession, in the light of the principle of hereditary seisin. By a judgment of 24 June 2019, the French-speaking Court of First Instance of Brussels examined the blocking of bank accounts in a succession. The Court held that... Continue Reading →
The context: discretionary management in question and a lost reinvestment opportunity A wealthy client sued his banker, complaining that, after liquidating all the financial instruments in his portfolio, the banker had been slow to reinvest the resulting cash, whereas, according to the client, the banker was responsible for managing his assets. For the client, a... 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.
When a business sets out to repay an investment credit early, the bank generally claims, for credits concluded before December 2013, an indemnity called variously a break indemnity, a reinvestment indemnity or funding loss. The question is topical both because of the large amount this indemnity may represent for the borrower in a low-rate environment,... Continue Reading →
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
Extracts from an independent analysis of funding loss and the reinvestment or break indemnity claimed by the bank on the early repayment of a credit, written by one of this site's authors together with Jelle Vandenbroucke. The analysis was published in late 2017 in the volume "Actualités en droit bancaire". An economic climate of falling... Continue Reading →
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.
