Notice No. 6/2023 of the Bank of Portugal

Notice of the Bank of Portugal
No. 6/2023
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Published in: DR, 2nd Series, Part E, No. 183, of 20-09-2023 Mod. 99999939/T – 01/14 Index Text of the Notice Text of the Notice With the publication of Law No. 78/2021, of November 24, a new Regime for the Prevention and Combat of Unauthorized Financial Activity and Consumer Protection was instituted, based, among other lines of action, on the reinforcement of control by entities that publish, transmit, or disseminate advertising relating to the marketing of any products, goods, or provision of financial services, on the blocking of websites and removal of illegal content, and on the establishment of a duty to report to the Bank of Portugal the intervention by lawyers, notaries, and solicitors in certain legal acts.

Paragraph 8 of Article 4 of Law No. 78/2021, of November 24, assigned to the Bank of Portugal the duty to regulate the manner in which the registration, reporting, and periodicity of information must occur by notaries, solicitors, and lawyers.

As follows from the aforementioned instrument, the reporting obligation by notaries, solicitors, and lawyers applies to loan contracts, declarations of assumption or confession of debt, financial lease contracts, restitutive financial lease contracts, real estate purchase contracts associated with a lease to the seller or transfer of ownership to the original alienator, and contracts for the purchase and sale of real estate or movable property subject to registration that do not involve the granting of a loan by entities authorized to develop credit activities, whenever the buyer has previously been the seller of the same asset or the lease or usufruct of the real estate or movable asset by the seller is provided for, or the option for the seller to repurchase the asset is provided for.

For full compliance with this reporting obligation, and in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 6 of Article 4 of Law No. 78/2021, of November 24, it is incumbent upon the Bank of Portugal to organize and manage a database where it registers the communicated data, which, under the terms provided for in paragraph 10 of the aforementioned article, are covered by the duty of secrecy, without prejudice to the exercise of the regulatory powers entrusted to the Bank of Portugal and the exceptions provided for by law, namely, for the purpose of communication to any judicial authority within the scope of a criminal proceeding.

The report communicated electronically to the Bank of Portugal must include the identification of the parties, the capacity in which they intervene, the legal nature of the legal act performed, the date, the place of the performance of the act, and its monetary value.

Notice of the Bank of Portugal No. 6/2023
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In these terms, the Bank of Portugal, in the exercise of the powers conferred upon it by paragraph 1 of Article 17 of its Organic Law, approved by Law No. 5/98, of January 31, and by the provisions of paragraph 8 of Article 4 of Law No. 78/2021, of November 24, determines the following:

Article 1.
Object
This Notice regulates the manner in which the registration, reporting, and periodicity of information must occur by notaries, solicitors, lawyers, and trainee lawyers who, by virtue of the provisions of paragraph 5 of Article 4 of Law No. 78/2021, of November 24, electronically communicate to the Bank of Portugal information regarding public deeds, authenticated private documents, or documents with signatures recognized by them, which fall under the legal acts referred to in the subparagraphs of paragraph 1 of Article 4 of the aforementioned Law, with respect to:
a. The elements to be reported; b. The form of communication of the information to be reported;
c. The periodicity of the communication.

Article 2.
Scope of Application
The addressees of this Notice are notaries, solicitors, lawyers, and trainee lawyers who intervene in public deeds, authenticated private documents, or documents with signatures recognized by them, and which fall under the legal acts referred to in the subparagraphs of paragraph 1 of Article 4 of Law No. 78/2021, of November 24, with the exception of those in which they act on behalf of entities authorized by financial supervisors.

Article 3.
Elements to be Reported

1. The reporting of information regarding the legal acts provided for in the previous article includes the following elements:
   a. The identification of the reporter, composed of full name, tax identification number, and professional identification number; b. The identification of the parties, composed of full name and tax identification number;
   c. The capacity in which the parties intervene;
   d. The legal nature of the legal act performed, in accordance with the enumeration provided for in paragraph 1 of Article 4 of Law No. 78/2021, of November 24; e. The date and place of the performance of the act; f. The monetary value of the act.
2. Optionally, the Bank of Portugal will provide the possibility of reporting:
   a. The fixed interest rate; b. The deadline for exercising the option to repurchase the property, whenever such occurs.
3. The information mentioned in the previous paragraphs must be reported in Portuguese.

Article 4.
Form of Communication

1. For the purposes of the provisions of paragraph 5 of Article 4 of Law No. 78/2021, of November 24, notaries, solicitors, lawyers, and trainee lawyers communicate the report with the information provided for in paragraph 1 of Article 4 of Law No. 78/2021, of November 24, through a platform made available for this purpose by the Bank of Portugal.
2. The communication provided for in the previous paragraph is carried out by notaries, solicitors, lawyers, and trainee lawyers on the platform referred to in the previous paragraph, through authentication via tax identification number or citizen card and subsequent completion of a digital form made available.

Article 5.
Reporting Deadline
Notaries, solicitors, lawyers, and trainee lawyers proceed with the communication referred to in Article 4 within 30 (thirty) days after the performance of the legal act subject to reporting.

Article 6.
Responsibility for the Communicated Information The completeness, timeliness, promptness, and accuracy of the information communicated to the Bank of Portugal are the exclusive responsibility of the notaries, solicitors, lawyers, and trainee lawyers.

Article 7.
Retention Period of Reported Information
The information communicated under this Notice is archived for a period of seven years after its receipt by the Bank of Portugal.

Article 8.
Entry into Force
This Notice enters into force on the day following its publication.
September 5, 2023. - The Governor, Mário Centeno.

Notice of the Bank of Portugal No. 6/2023
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Mod. 99999939/T – 01/14