On February 9, 2021, Law No. 1061 Law of Reforms and Additions to the Law for the Protection of Consumers and Users Rights was published in The Official Gazette, which in its article 53, establishes that:
“Regarding to the protection of the rights of users of financial services, it will correspond:
- To the Superintendency of Banks and Other Financial Institutions the application of this Law in matters of financial services provided by banks, financial companies and other entities subject to its regulation, supervision and inspection in accordance with the provisions of Law No. 316, Superintendency of Banks and Other Financial Institutions Law, and other applicable financial laws;
- To the National Microfinance Commission, the application of the provisions of this Law regarding financial services provided by the institutions regulated and supervised by it;
- To the Central Bank of Nicaragua, the application of the provisions of this Law regarding financial services related to the country’s payment systems, including financial technology services for payment services; as well as remittance and sale and / or currency exchange services provided by suppliers;
- To the Ministry of Family, Community, Cooperative and Associative Economy the attention of cooperative institutions within the framework of the functions, attributions and powers granted by the Law; and
- To the Ministry of Development, Industry and Commerce in cases of complaints from users of financial services not regulated by any of the previous Regulatory Bodies. “
And in its article 120 it states the following:
“Regulatory Bodies other than DIPRODEC that do not have established by Law the amounts of the pecuniary penalties in this matter, will be empowered to establish and execute in their own internal regulations the types of infractions and the amounts of the fines, applying for this the minimum and maximum ranges established in Articles 122, 123 and 124 of this Law for minor, serious and very serious offenses”.
Consequently, and in compliance with the law, the Superintendency of Banks and Other Financial Institutions (SIBOIF in Spanish) and the Central Bank of Nicaragua (BCN in Spanish) have issued the following regulations:
- Resolution No. CD-SIBOIF-1240-1ABR06-2021, Regulation on the imposition of sanctions for non-compliance in matters of transparency and protection to the client and / or user of financial services.
- Resolution CD-BCN-XVI-1-21, Regulation for the attention of queries, claims or complaints from consumers and users of financial services and / or products provided by suppliers subject to the regulation of the Central Bank of Nicaragua.
Both regulations establish the procedure to be followed by consumers and users of financial services provided by entities subject to the supervision of these institutions to file complaints and claims when they consider that their rights as users or consumers have been violated.
Additionally, the infractions catalog and the sanctioning regime that each institution will apply is establishes in the event that users of financial services file a claim, being the maximum limit of the sanctions: five hundred and fifty units of measurement (each unit of measurement is equivalent to a minimum wage of the industrial sector that is around US $ 200.00).
If you need more information about it, please do not hesitate to contact us.