Título XIII. Regimen procesal

Executive proceedings filed by banking institutions and companies of financial groups shall be subject to the provisions of this Law and, as to matters not provided for therein, to the provisions of general law.

Cognizance and decision of matters and contentious questions between banks and financial groups, and between the latter and third parties, corresponds to the ordinary courts.

The competent judge to hear the proceedings brought by the banks and the companies of the financial groups shall be the judge of the place where the principal offices of the executing party are located, the judge of the place where the encumbered property is located or where the obligation was contracted or must be performed, at the election of the executing party.

Executive proceedings shall be advanced on its own initiative and judges shall be obligated to ensure that the time limits that the law determines for each procedural act are strictly complied with.

The executive proceedings brought by banks or the member companies of financial groups, based on a title corresponding to credit with real guarantees, shall be commenced with the setting of day and time for the auction, and in that same order the intervention of the immovable property may be decreed if so requested by the executing party.

The setting of day and time for the auction shall be notified to the persons to whom it legally corresponds, in the manner established in the Civil and Commercial Procedural Code. In the event that the notification cannot be effected in the manner indicated in this article within a time limit of fifteen days, at the creditor's request, such notification may be effected by means of an edict in the official gazette and in one of wide circulation in the country. The edict shall contain only: a) the identification of the tribunal and of the proceedings; b) the indication of the person to whom notification is made; c) the indication of the act and the nature of the proceedings; d) the indication of the time limit for the defendant to appear in the proceedings; and e) the name of the judge. The notification shall be evidenced in the proceedings with the pages of the newspapers in which the edict appears. The time limit referred to in subparagraph d) above shall begin to run from the business day following publication of the edict.

Banks and the companies forming part of financial groups, in the executions they initiate, shall have the right to designate and remove the depositary of the property subject to the executive proceeding. Any other depositary previously appointed shall be removed immediately.

The judge shall only process the defenses of limitation period or payment. In the latter case the executed party shall present:

a)The document issued by the bank evidencing that the amount giving rise to the execution has been paid, which must include principal, interest and judicial costs; or,

b)Certification by a tribunal of the decision approving payment by consignment.

Any other defense shall be rejected outright, but the executed party shall have the power to assert it by means of a subsequent ordinary trial. This subsequent ordinary trial shall not be available in the case of the executions referred to in Article 107 of this Law.

In addition to those contemplated in the Civil and Commercial Procedural Code, savings passbooks, certificates of deposit, investment certificates, bonds, securities, materialized or represented by means of book entries, or the respective statements or certificates representing such documents, which banks and finance companies authorize or deliver to evidence receipt of money, shall constitute an executory title, without need for recognition.

Prior to the initiation of judicial enforcement based on said titles, a payment demand made by Notary must be effected.