Instruction for the Approval of Deposit Rules for Investment Banks

OCTOBER 2025
INSTRUCTION FOR THE APPROVAL OF
DEPOSIT RULES FOR INVESTMENT BANKS

INDEX

GENERALITIES................................................................................................................................................... 1
OBJECTIVE.............................................................................................................................................................. 2
DEFINITIONS....................................................................................................................................................... 2
GENERAL RULES ........................................................................................................................................... 3
SPECIFIC RULES .......................................................................................................................................... 4
5.1. APPLICATION............................................................................................................................................................. 4
5.2. MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS OF THE DEPOSIT RULE ........................................................................................ 5
5.3 ANALYSIS OF THE APPLICATION................................................................................................................................... 6
5.4 APPROVAL OR DENIAL ............................................................................................................................. 7
5.5 NOTIFICATIONS TO THE ENTITY........................................................................................................................... 8
5.6 APPLICATIONS WITHOUT EFFECT ..................................................................................................................................... 8
SPECIAL PROVISIONS ................................................................................................................................. 9
VALIDITY, DISTRIBUTION AND DISCLOSURE.......................................................................................................... 9
MODIFICATION CONTROL TABLE ............................................................................................................. 11

CENTRAL RESERVE BANK
OF EL SALVADOR
INSTRUCTION FOR THE APPROVAL OF DEPOSIT RULES
FOR INVESTMENT BANKS
DEPARTMENT OF
PAGE No.
CODE
980505
REVISED
Manager of Financial
Stability and Public Policies
APPROVED BY:
Session No. CD-28/2025, of October 31, 2025

GENERALITIES
1.1. BACKGROUND
The Organic Law of the Central Reserve Bank of El Salvador establishes that, in order to regulate the financial system, the Central Bank may issue instructions applicable to the matter of terms and transferability requirements of funds collection instruments from the public; for this reason, the Investment Banks Law empowers it to issue such norms through instructions to which Investment Banks will be subject, regarding the collection of funds from Sophisticated Investors in any form, whether in national or foreign currency.

For its part, the Administrative Procedures Law regulates the validity and efficacy requirements of administrative actions of the entire Public Administration, which is already incorporated in this Instruction.

In this version of the instruction, the treatment of information classification as "confidential" is generalized according to Article 24 of the Public Information Access Law, the electronic channel is incorporated complementarily to receive applications for approval of new deposit rules or modifications of already approved ones, and improvements are made in the classifications and deadlines for the complexity of the Rules.

1.2. LEGAL BASIS
This Instruction is issued in accordance with the following legislation:
1.2.1. Article 50, letter a) of the Organic Law of the Central Reserve Bank of El Salvador.
1.2.2. Articles 3, 4, 41, 42, 45, 46 and 71 of the Investment Banks Law.
1.2.3. Articles 18, 19, 72, 83, 86, 88, 89, 97 and 99 of the Administrative Procedures Law.
1.2.4. Article 24 of the Public Information Access Law.

1.3. SCOPE OF APPLICATION
The provisions contained in this Instruction shall be applied by the Central Reserve Bank of El Salvador to Investment Banks.

OBJECTIVE
To establish the provisions for the approval or modification of the Deposit Rules of Investment Banks, regarding transferability or negotiability and the term to which such entities will be subject, with respect to the collection of funds from Sophisticated Investors in any form.
DEFINITIONS
3.1. Central Bank: Central Reserve Bank of El Salvador.
3.2. Department: Department of Public Policies and Financial Innovation.
3.3. Requesting Entity: Investment Banks.
3.4. Management: Manager of Financial Stability and Public Policies.
3.5. Sophisticated Investors: natural or legal persons, provided they meet the following criteria:
a) Financial knowledge and experience: They must have knowledge, experience, or skills to handle complex investments or financial operations. b) Capacity to assume risks: That is, they can understand and bear the possible losses or risks involved in more sophisticated financial operations. c) Minimum net worth: They must have at least USD 250,000 in easily liquid assets, that is, resources that can be transformed into cash quickly and without many legal, contractual, or encumbrance restrictions. d) Easily liquid assets ("liquidity"): These assets may include cash, Treasury bonds, tokenized bonds, gold (including tokenized gold), stablecoins, Bitcoin, or other digital assets, provided they are free of encumbrances and restrictions that prevent their immediate use or alienation. e) Funds availability: Their Assets must be mostly under their control, without encumbrances, legal or contractual restrictions that prevent their use or rapid disposition.

3.6. Product Modalities: Those accounts derived from the main product and differentiated by their particular characteristics, such as the segment they target, opening amounts, use or management of the account.
3.7. Deposit Rules: Set of rules through which Investment Banks will govern themselves to collect funds from Sophisticated Investors in different modalities such as the receipt of deposits, placement of bonds, titles, or other obligations.
3.8. SAS: Simplified Joint Stock Company.
3.9. Final Version: Document of Deposit Rules that contains the incorporation of observations made during the approval process and meets the conditions required by the Central Bank.

GENERAL RULES
4.1. The requesting entity must send an application to the Presidency of the Central Bank, attaching an original physical or digital copy (to politicaspublicas@bcr.gob.sv) of the Deposit Rule; as well as the documentation listed in section 5.1.1 as applicable; if additional information is necessary for its analysis, it will be sent with the application.
4.2. At the same time, a copy of the application and attachments in PDF format and a digital Word file of the deposit rule according to section 5.1.1.4 must be sent to the email: politicaspublicas@bcr.gob.sv.
4.3. It is the obligation of the requesting entity to comply with the requirements and deadlines granted within the approval process of the rules (Annex No. 1).
4.4. It is the responsibility of the Management, through the Department, to carry out the corresponding analysis of the Deposit Rule, which must include the legal opinion and respect the deadlines established in the approval process; likewise, it must keep a single file for each Deposit Rule submitted for approval or modification by the Board of Directors.
4.5. Once the final version of the original physical copies of the Deposit Rules is received, duly authorized by the requesting entity and with its corresponding transmittal letter, the Management is enabled to manage before the Board of Directors the incorporation into the agenda for the approval or denial of the Deposit Rule application, and will have the deadline corresponding to the degree of complexity of the application.
4.6. The deadlines established in this Instruction refer to business days and will be counted from the next business day.
4.7. Applications will be resolved according to their degree of complexity, and the deadlines will begin to count from the next business day after all documentation referenced in sections 5.1 and 5.2 is validated, a deadline that the Department will communicate to the Requesting Entity.
4.8. The deadlines mentioned in Annex No. 1 will be extended if the Department requires additional analysis of the content of the Deposit Rule or if the requesting entity requires an extension of the deadline to remedy the observations made; in both cases, the extension will be communicated by the Department to the entity.
4.9. The administrative procedure regulated in this Instruction must be concluded within a maximum period of nine months counted from its initiation, in accordance with Article 89 of the Administrative Procedures Law.

SPECIFIC RULES
5.1. APPLICATION
5.1.1. The Legal Representative or Attorney-in-fact of the requesting entity must present to the Presidency of the Central Bank the following documentation:
5.1.1.1. Application for Approval of Deposit Rules, duly signed and stamped (Annex No. 2), legalization of the applicant's signature according to Article 54 of the Notary Law, in which the documents accrediting the capacity in which the signer acts are listed.

5.1.1.2. Notarially certified copy of the deed of incorporation, in the case of newly constituted entities that are in the process of authorization to begin operations.
5.1.1.3. Editable Microsoft Word format file of the document containing the deposit rule submitted for approval, which must comply with what is established in section 5.2 as applicable.
5.1.1.4. Certification of the point in the minutes where the highest authority of the requesting entity authorizes starting the procedure. Document that, when submitted physically to the Central Bank, if not original, must be a notarially certified copy.
5.1.2. Any application that lacks the documentation required in this Instruction will have a deadline of ten business days from the day following the date of communication to the requesting entity to complete it. The entity may request an extension of the aforementioned deadline, which may not exceed five business days. If not received by the end of the deadline, what is established in section 5.6.2 will apply.

5.2. MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS OF THE DEPOSIT RULE
The document containing the Deposit Rule submitted for approval must contain at least the following:
5.2.1. When it concerns a savings account, checking account, or time deposit, it must comply with what is established in the "Scheme of the content of a Deposit Rule" (Annex No. 3), as applicable.
5.2.2. When it concerns Dematerialized Investment Certificates, they must comply with the "Scheme of content for deposit rules of dematerialized investment certificates" (Annex No. 4), as applicable, and with the "Minimum Guidelines that must be contained in the Rules regulating Dematerialized Investment Certificates" in force on the date and available on the Central Bank's website (www.bcr.gob.sv).

5.3 ANALYSIS OF THE APPLICATION
5.3.1 The Department will carry out the following:
5.3.1.1 Verify within the first two business days of receipt that the application complies with the documentation required in this Instruction in sections 5.1 and 5.2; otherwise, it will notify the requesting entity as established in section 5.1.2.
5.3.1.2 Classify the type of complexity of the analysis of the deposit rule, according to what is established in Annex No. 1.
5.3.1.3 Notify the contact registered in the application of the classification of the Deposit Rule and the response deadline.
5.3.1.4 Analyze the content of the Deposit Rules and verify compliance with the minimum requirements defined, from a financial point of view.
5.3.1.5 Request from the requesting entity during the analysis process, the expansion of information on the products or the rule in general, if necessary.
5.3.1.6 Notify the requesting entity of the financial and legal observations.
5.3.2 The Legal Management will analyze that the content of the Deposit Rules is in harmony with other laws that develop and regulate the financial products contained in the referenced rules, will issue a legal opinion on the matter, and will send it to the Department to incorporate it into the final analysis.
5.3.3 The deadline for analyzing the content of the Deposit Rule will not exceed fifteen business days, depending on the complexity of the rule. This deadline may be extended on a justified basis up to the maximum established for the referred analysis according to Annex No. 1, depending on the complexity of the Rule.
5.3.4 If observations arise from the analysis, they will be notified to the contact named by the entity via email, through a preventive note. The requesting entity must remedy the observations within a maximum deadline of ten business days, counted from the next business day after the notification by the Central Bank, and must send the document to the Department, digitally with the changes incorporated.

5.3.5 The deadline to remedy the observations may be extended before its expiration at the request of the requesting entity, for which it must send a letter via email to the Department. This deadline will run from the next business day following the expiration date of the initial deadline, and may not exceed ten business days.
5.3.6 When the requesting entity does not remedy all observations, it must justify the reasons why they were not incorporated in their entirety, allowing the requesting entity to resubmit the document based on what was agreed, not exceeding five business days. Otherwise, it must submit a new application, restarting the approval process.
5.3.7 If the entity remedies all observations, the process will continue.

5.4 APPROVAL OR DENIAL
5.4.1. The Department will communicate to the requesting entity the conformity of the Deposit Rules once compliance with the observations is verified, and will indicate that two original copies be sent physically or digitally (to politicaspublicas@bcr.gob.sv) to the main offices of the Central Bank within a period not greater than five business days.
5.4.2. The entity must submit the application based on Annex No. 5 and the copies must meet the following requirements:
5.4.2.1. Contain the suggested changes incorporated in their text.
5.4.2.2. Present the copies on paper with the Entity's letterhead, printed double-sided or digitally.
5.4.2.3. Each page must have the seal and signature of the Legal Representative or Attorney-in-fact of the requesting entity.
5.4.3. The Department will verify, within a period not greater than two business days following the receipt of the copies and documentation, that they comply with what is required in this Instruction; otherwise, it will notify the requesting entity to remedy the lack of requirements or accompany the requested documents within a maximum deadline of ten business days.

5.4.4. Once the physical or digital copies are received, as well as all corresponding documentation, and with the Department's approval, the application will be presented for consideration by the Board of Directors, who will approve the Deposit Rules, based on the technical report and legal opinion presented by the Management and the Legal Management.
5.4.5. The Board of Directors will deny the application in the following cases:
5.4.5.1. When the Management advises, based on the opinions of the Departments of Public Policies and Financial Innovation and the Legal Management, that after the submission of the notification, the requesting entity did not incorporate the comments made to the rule to satisfaction.
5.4.5.2. When the Management advises, based on the opinions of the Department of Public Policies and Financial Innovation and the Legal Management, that after the submission of the notification, the requesting entity has incorporated new elements, products, or modifications that were not part of the analysis performed.
5.4.6. The Secretary of the Board of Directors will communicate to the requesting entity what was resolved by the referred Council.

5.5 NOTIFICATIONS TO THE ENTITY
Once the entity's application has been addressed in a Board of Directors session, the requesting entity will be communicated the resolution taken after its pronouncement.

5.6 APPLICATIONS WITHOUT EFFECT
5.6.1 It will be understood that an application is without effect:
5.6.1.1 When compliance with what is defined in section 5.1 of this Instruction is not given.

5.6.1.2 When the requesting entity has not remedied the observations within the deadline indicated in this Instruction.
5.6.1.3 When the requesting entity does not submit the two final copies along with the corresponding documentation in the manner required in this Instruction, within the deadline indicated in sections 5.4.1 and 5.4.3.
5.6.1.4 At the request of the requesting entity.
5.6.2 In any of the situations indicated above, the Management will invalidate and proceed to archive the application, which it will communicate electronically to the requesting entity. In all cases, the interested parties will maintain their right to present a new application, which will give rise to a new procedure.

SPECIAL PROVISIONS
6.1 The operational aspects that arise in the execution of this Instruction will be resolved by the Presidency of this Central Bank, at the request of the Management.
6.2 The aspects not contemplated in this Instruction will be resolved by the Board of Directors of the Central Bank.
VALIDITY, DISTRIBUTION AND DISCLOSURE
7.1 This Instruction will enter into force on November 1, 2025, approved in Session No. CD-28/2025 of October 31, 2025.
7.2 The Board of Directors will keep a copy of this Instruction as backup for the approval minutes and will deliver the original to the Risk and Strategic Management Manager. Likewise, it will deliver an electronic copy to the Department and authorize it to distribute electronic copies to the following Units:
7.2.1 Presidency
7.2.2 Manager of Financial Stability and Public Policies
7.2.3 Legal Management
7.3 The Secretariat of this Board of Directors is authorized to send a copy of this Instruction to the Requesting Entities.

7.4 The Manager of Financial Stability and Public Policies, through the Department, will disseminate this Instruction to the involved units.
7.5 The Risk and Strategic Management Manager is authorized to publish this Instruction in the Administrative Instruments System, for general consultation.
7.6 This Instruction will be published in its entirety on the Central Bank's Website, for the knowledge of the general public.

MODIFICATION CONTROL TABLE