Extract
[...] 312-1, IV, of the Code: the fact that the client 'has deliberately used his account for transactions that the institution has reason to suspect are for illegal purposes' and, according to the Court, in fact, ' constitute a deliberate use of the account, within the meaning of this text, the fact, for its holder, to communicate the coordinates to a co-contractor so that he makes a payment by transfer to this account ». DOC 6 - CIV. 1ÈRE - 9 FEB - N°86-11557 - EFFECTS OF CLOSURE OF THE ACCOUNT : A the occasion of a total censorship, the 1here civil chamber of the Court of Cassation, has ruled on February on the effects of account closure. FACTS : The Toulon company had a current account in the books of the Banque nationale de Paris (BNP). The account has become debtor. [...]
[...] It plays the role of a reference account for a client's current treasury operations: receipts, payments, cash withdrawals. - Juridically, in French banking law, the current account presents itself as a a current account where multiple debit and credit operations are recorded in articles (credits/debits), and at the end, we determine a balance (receivable or payable) to be carried to the account. If it is a credit balance, the client is a creditor; if it is a debit balance, they owe money to the bank (subject to the conditions of the authorized overdraft or interest charges). [...]
[...] Beyond the doctrinal discussions on this notion (which may be relaunched by the April ruling), a very rich jurisprudence exploits it, in various fields, to refuse a contractor the right to a remuneration that has no real counterpart. Why not submit the banker who charges interest corresponding to a period he artificially created by a differential of dates to common law? It may seem judicious to invoke Article 1131 against the banker who executes a transfer between two accounts held in his establishment and who, through the value dates, gives rise to an interest claim when he has not provided any credit. [...]
[...] Does the conventional interest rate set before the account closure continue to apply after it without a written agreement? FIRST MEANS SOLUTION : on the first means, pursuant to article 1907 of the civil code setting the general principle that 'the conventional interest rate must be fixed by written ; that this rule, prescribed for the very validity of the stipulation of interest, is of general application and that it cannot be derogated from even in the matter of interest related to the debtor balance of a current accounthere civil chamber of the Court of Cassation censures the appeal judgment for violation of the legal basis - Censure of the High Court explaining itself from the fact that the judges of the first instance had, on the one hand, sovereignly established that no writing fixed the interest rate of the debtor balance of the current account of the company before closure, and on the other hand, condemned the latter to pay interest, whereas, as recalled by the 1st chamber, the interest rate was not fixed by any writinghere civil chamber « in the absence of a writing fixing the conventional interest rate, the legal interest rate is the only one applicable to the debtor balance of a current account ». [...]
[...] when the customer has deliberately used their account for transactions that the institution has reason to suspect are for illegal purposes ». RIGHTS OF PERSONS IN A VULNERABLE BANKING SITUATION : Financial fragility is a concept adopted by the legislator for to protect vulnerable customers and limit excessive banking costs in case of incidents. - Article L. 312-1-3 of the CMF requires credit institutions to offer a specific offer to natural persons not acting for professional purposes who are in a situation of financial fragility. [...]
