According to the new Act, loan institutions must get an entry in the register of loan institutions
On July 22, 2017, the Mortgage Credit Act and supervision over intermediaries and agents entered into force in Poland (hereinafter: the Mortgage Credit Act). It is a pro-consumer and its purpose is, above all, to make the loan process more transparent.
Subject range
Also, the Mortgage Credit Act introduces a number of amendments to the Consumer Credit Act, namely provides new requirements for loan intermediaries and loan institutions, ie lenders other than banks, loan unions and entities whose business consists in granting consumer loans in the form of deferred payment of the price or wages for the purchase of goods and services offered by them. Since the entry into force of the law, it is a prerequisite for lending activity and for loan intermediation to obtain an entry in the register of loan institutions or, respectively, the register of loan intermediaries maintained by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority.
Application for entry
Application for entry in the register of loan institutions must include:
– company name that can only operate as a joint-stock company or a limited liability company,
– registered office and address, personal data of members of the board of directors (names, PESEL numbers), company number in the register of entrepreneurs of the National Court Register, company tax number.
The application must be accompanied by a certificate from the National Criminal Record of the members of the company’s bodies and commercial proxies and documents confirming compliance with the legal form of the entity and the amount of share capital (not less than PLN 200,000). The registration fee is PLN 600.
Similar rules apply when submitting for registration in the loan intermediaries register, but with the possibility that the loan intermediary may also be an individual entrepreneur and there is no requirement as to the amount of share capital of the intermediary company.
The Polish Financial Supervision Authority makes an entry in the register of loan institutions or the register of loan intermediaries within 14 days of receiving the application.
Penalties
It should also be pointed out that running a business by a lending institution, namely providing consumer loan without obtaining the above entry in the register, is a crime at risk of fines up to PLN 500 thousand. In the case of doing business by a loan intermediary without entering the register, the penalty is lower – PLN 100 thousand.
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