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Legal alert no. 80

Legal Alert no. 80 – Decree-Law no. 122/2018, December 28th


On December 28th, Decree-Law no. 122/2018 approving the first amendment to Decree-Law no. 81-C/2017, of July 7th, referring to the legal framework regarding the access to and exercise of the activity of credit intermediary (henceforth named “RJIC”), was published in the Portuguese Official Gazette.


Since RJIC’s implementation, access to the activity of credit intermediary is dependent on authorization by and registration with the Bank of Portugal.


When RJIC entered into force, a transitional period was established, until December 31st, 2018, during which all natural or legal persons already performing the activity of credit intermediary were authorized to keep carrying out such activity.
At the end of such period, all non-authorized and non-registered persons would be prohibited from exercising the activities of a credit intermediary.


However, such transitional period did not take into account the deadline for the Bank of Portugal to issue a decision, reason why the transitional period was extended until July 31st, 2019.


Given the abovementioned, Decree-Law no. 122/2018 provides that natural and legal persons already performing the activity of credit intermediary, who have applied for authorization for said activity with Bank of Portugal until December 31st, 2018, are allowed to continue pursuing such activity in Portugal regardless of the authorization foreseen in article 11 of RJIC, until July 31st, 2019, unless a decision is issued by Bank of Portugal on an earlier date, in which case said decision shall prevail.


This legal diploma shall take effect from January 1st, 2019.


To access the full text of Decree-Law no. 122/2018, December 28th, please click here.

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