Lodgement of claims – Information

Brief Background

Banco Espírito Santo, S.A. (“BES”) is under liquidation, following the withdrawal by European Central Bank of the license for the pursuit of banking activity, which produces the effects of the declaration of insolvency and establishes the entry into liquidation of the institution.
The liquidation judicial process is at the Commercial Court of Lisbon (Judge 1), under number 18588/16.2T8LSB.
The legal regime of liquidation of Portuguese credit institutions is applicable to BES, and is governed by the provisions of Decree-Law no. 199/2006, of 25 October and by the Insolvency and Corporate Recovery Code (“CIRE”)(1).

Lodgement of claims

Deadline

According to an announcement published on the Citius Portal, on January 8th, the Lisbon Commercial Court established the deadline for lodgement of claims on March 8th, 2019.

The Court had also clarified that article 569, paragraph 2 of the Civil Code of Procedure applies subsidiarily to the claims lodged in the liquidation proceeding and therefore claims lodged until the end of this last deadline will be received as such.

To whom they must be addressed

The lodgement of claims shall be addressed to BES’ Liquidation Committee and must be presented at its place of business (opening hours between 9am and 4pm), sent by registered mail to Rua Barata Salgueiro, n.º 28 – 6º, 1250-044 Lisboa, Portugal, or sent to the following email: reclamacoes.credito@bes.pt

Request

In the lodgement of claims, the claimant creditor shall indicate all the relevant information for the assessment of the claimed credit and attach the relevant supporting documents.

The request shall contain the following information (art.º 128º, no. 1 of CIRE):
- The origin of the credits, its maturity date, amount of capital and interest;
- The conditions to which the credits are subject, either suspensive or resolving;
- The nature of the credits - common, subordinated, privileged or secured and, in this latter case, the assets or rights that are the object of the guarantee and the relevant registration identification data, if applicable;
- The existence of possible personal guarantees, with the identification of the guarantors; and
- The applicable moratorium interest rate.

Attention is drawn to the fact that, according to the law, even the creditors which have their credit acknowledged by a definitive decision are not exempted from lodging a claim in BES judicial litigation proceeding, in case they want to obtain payment.
In case of doubts about the formalities or content of the lodgement of claims, it is recommended that the creditors seek their own legal advice.

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(1) Article 9, number 3, of Decree-Law no. 199/2006 sets forth that the remaining provisions of the Insolvency and Corporate Recovery Code which are compatible with the specificities of this Decree Law are mutatis mutandis applicable, except for sections IX and X.