Institutions supervised by the National Banking and Insurance Commission (hereinafter the “CNBS”) are all entities whose activities are supervised, monitored, and controlled by the CNBS in the financial, stock, and insurance markets. Specifically, Article 6 of the CNBS Law establishes that these are public and private banking institutions, insurance companies, reinsurance companies, financial companies, savings and loan associations, general deposit warehouses, stock exchanges, brokerage houses, currency exchange houses, pension funds and provident institutions, public and private pension and retirement administrators, and any others that perform functions similar to those indicated.
One of the powers of the CNBS is to regulate aspects related to the protection of financial users, which are all natural or legal people who acquire or use a service or product from a supervised institution. Currently, the following CNBS regulations are in force: the Rules for Strengthening Transparency, Financial Culture, and Financial User Service in Supervised Institutions, CIRCULAR CNBS No. 022/2022, and Complementary Rules, CIRCULAR CNBS No. 023/2022.
All financial users must know their rights under these regulations to protect themselves against abusive clauses and practices by supervised institutions. However, in practice, the obligations of financial users and the rights of supervised institutions go unnoticed. In addition, due to the lack of knowledge of financial users, claims may be resolved unfavorably by the supervised institution or by CNBS itself.
The obligations of financial users are:
- To be aware of the rights and obligations arising from the contract signed with the supervised institutions.
- To comply with the terms, conditions, and deadlines established in the contract signed with the supervised institution, provided that the agreement is in accordance with the principles of transparency contained in the regulations and laws in force in the country, as well as any other provision issued by the CNBS for this purpose.
- To provide supervised institutions with complete, accurate, comprehensive, and reliable information.
- Treat the staff of supervised institutions with respect.
- Make prudent use of personal information (usernames, passwords, codes, etc.) that allows access to contracted financial products and services, following the recommendations made by supervised institutions and the CNBS.
Of the above obligations, those in paragraphs 1 and 2 cited in the previous paragraph stand out, as they recognize the principle in private law of pacta sunt servanda, within the legally imposed limits. This means that if the contract signed between the supervised institution and the financial user complies with the applicable legal system, the financial user must respect and comply with the terms and conditions of said contract.
On the other hand, since the first version of the regulations issued in 2010, supervised institutions have had the right to modify the terms and conditions of the contract, provided that the parties have agreed on the possibility that the institution may modify the contract and that such contractual amendment is notified within the time limits established in the regulations, and is done at the addresses and in accordance with the physical and/or electronic mechanisms agreed upon in the document.
In view of the above, it is the obligation of all financial users to be aware of their obligations and rights, since the products and services in the financial, stock market, and insurance sectors are complex. It is therefore advisable that, as far as possible, financial users seek legal and technical advice appropriate to the product or service they wish to contract.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that, to disseminate the rights and obligations contained in the regulations and to educate the general population, the CNBS issued the Rules for Strengthening Financial Education in Supervised Institutions, CNBS CIRCULAR No. 027/2024, which aim to establish the minimum requirements that must be observed by supervised institutions to develop and implement Financial Education Programs for the benefit of current and/or potential financial users.