Country Manual Private Banking
Portugal out of EEA – Update 2024
BRP has updated its Country Manual Private Banking for Portugal out of EEA – (Def, RS, BT & RT)
| Source of changes | Answers |
|---|---|
| Law / Regulation | No |
| New Position of the Authorities | No |
| Evolution of Expert’s Interpretation | Yes |
The relevant regulatory restrictions and conditions for cross-border services from an EEA country into Portugal have been reviewed to ensure that the content of the documents remains accurate and in line with the evolving interpretation of the current legal and regulatory framework. No major material changes have occurred since the last update of the Manual.
Material changes
New/additional restrictions and conditions that have been communicated by the local experts concern unfair contractual terms (that are considered null and void). Specifically, general contractual clauses that are written in a font size of less than 11 or 2.5 millimetres, and with a line spacing of less than 1.15 are considered unfair.
Also, the local specialists have further clarified the language requirements, by stating
As such, while mandatory language requirements exist for all agreements entered into by service providers with consumers that are subject to Portuguese Law, distance contracts for the provision of financial services entered into by providers of financial services and consumers are exempt from these requirements as long as the consumer in question contractually consents to the usage of another language.
Article 7(3) of the Decree-Law no. 330/90, from October 23rd (the “Advertisement Code”) only allows for advertisements in other languages if foreign nationals are the “only or main recipients”. As such, any advertisements (or any sort of marketing that qualifies as advertising under the Advertisement Code) targeting the Portuguese market will have to be made in Portuguese.
Generally, information provided to a consumer by a service provider must be in Portuguese, as imposed by article 7(3) of Law n.º 24/98, from July 31st (the “Consumer Defense Law”). Additionally, Decree-Law 238/86, from August 19th, extends this obligation to the provision of any services or goods offered to the general public in the Portuguese market and sets out penalties for non-compliance. Under these rules, the marketing of any services or products, along with any information provided (including pre-contractual information, any sort of information that is required under reporting/disclosure obligations and any other kinds of additional information) and the agreement itself, must be in Portuguese.
Notwithstanding, article 9(1) of Decree-Law no. 95/2006 – which specifically applies to distance agreements between providers of financial services (i.e. credit institutions, financial companies, payment institutions, electronic currency institutions, financial intermediaries in securities trading, insurance and reinsurance companies, insurance mediators and managing companies of pension funds) and consumers for the provision of financial services (i.e. any kind of banking, credit, insurance, investment or payment service) – foresees that consumers may contractually accept the use of another language. However, agreements entered into with consumers that do not qualify as distance agreements for the provision of financial services under Decree-Law 95/2006 must be drawn up in Portuguese and any information must be provided in Portuguese (as stated above and required by the Consumer Defense Law).
BT Short Comparison
BRP has created a comparison document allowing users to quickly identify the modifications made compared to the previous version of the PB Manual (BT Short Comparison). The BT Short Comparison can be found on BRP’s platform (mybrponline) in the Search tab by entering in the Document Field “CM PB BT SHORT COMP” and “PORTUGAL” in the Target Country Field..
The BT Short Comparison should be read as follows:
The first column contains a short description of the activity in question. The second column contains the answers of the previous version of the Country Manual (online until the day of the alert). The third column contains the new answers of the most recent version of the Country Manual. Only the modified answers are displayed (in colour). If the answers in the new version are unchanged compared to the previous version, they are shaded in grey.
For more information, please contact us: info@brpsa.com
Geneva, July 25th, 2024