This Royal Decree aims to develop the legal system of credit financial institutions, the basic aspects of which were defined in the first provision of Law 3/1994 of 14 April, adapting the Spanish legislation on credit institutions to the Second Banking Coordination Directive and introducing other amendments relating to the financial system, and in the Royal seventh provision of the Royal Decree-Law 12/1995 of 28 December 1995 on urgent measures in the field of the budget, tax and financial, which amends it.

Credit institutions constitute a new modality of financial institution called to replace the different categories of credit institutions with limited operational scope created under the Royal Decree 771/1989, of 23 June. They retain, from the legal regime of these last entities, the status of credit institution, but two important changes are introduced in relation to their financing possibilities, on the one hand, and with their operational capacity, on the other hand.

Financial credit institutions are prohibited, in spite of their status as a credit institution, to collect repayable funds from the public, in the form of a deposit, loan, temporary disposal of financial assets. or other similar means. This limitation allows the credit institutions to be exempt from the obligation to join a deposit guarantee fund and justifies a lower level of demand in respect of the requirements for the exercise of the activity in relation to the with those established for other credit institutions, and more specifically for banks, while making it necessary to provide, as is natural, alternative ways of financing.

Credit financial institutions see the rigid delimitation of their operational capacity that characterized the regulation of credit institutions with limited operational scope eliminated, which is a difference (a) fundamental to these entities. They may, as a result, carry out one or more of the typical activities of credit institutions (granting of loans and loans, factoring, leasing, issuance and management of credit cards and the granting of credit cards, and guarantees).

By this Royal Decree, in short, and in exercise of the power granted to the Government by paragraph 7 of the additional provision of Law 3/1994, certain specific aspects of the regulation of credit institutions as credit institutions characterised by their broad operational capacity and by certain limitations as to their ability to attract funding.

In the first place, alternative sources of financing are foreseen for the collection of repayable funds from the public, among which are the issues of securities that are subject to the Law of the Stock Market and the possibility of securitization. its assets in accordance with the rules applicable to securitisation funds.

In the second term, the system of creation of credit financial institutions is established, which is largely accommodated in the case of the Royal Decree 1245/1995 of 14 July, on the creation of banks, an activity cross-border and other issues relating to the legal status of credit institutions. In the light of the differences which the credit institutions present in relation to the banks-basically referring to their financing structure-the conditions for exercising the activity in respect of those required are relaxed. last. Thus, a minimum social capital is established lower than the one required for the creation of banks and the minimum number of members to be integrated by the board of the institution is reduced.

Third, the transformation of credit institutions with limited operational scope into credit financial institutions is addressed as long as, in case of non-eligibility for conversion into another type of credit institution, is the only way to continue its activity from 1 January 1997.

Finally, two requirements aimed at strengthening the prudential supervision of financial institutions laid down in Directive 95 /26/EC of 29 June 2001 on credit institutions should be introduced into the Spanish legislation on credit institutions. June, amending Directives 77 /780/EEC and 89 /646/EEC relating to credit institutions; Directives 73 /239/EEC and 92 /49/EEC on direct insurance other than life assurance; Directives 79 /267/EEC and 92 /96/EEC on to direct life insurance; Directive 93 /22/EEC on investment firms and the Directive 85 /611/EEC on certain undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities (UCITS) in order to strengthen prudential supervision, which amends the set of Community directives establishing the single market for services banking, investment services in securities markets and insurance services.

First, and in order to prevent a credit institution from opting for the legal system of a Member State of the European Union for the purpose of circumventing the strictest prudential rules in force in another Member State in which it plans to carry out or carries out most of its activities, the Community rules require that any financial institution must be authorised in the Member State in which its registered office is located, if the entity is a legal person, or which has its central administration in the Member State in which it has been authorised, if not, to the time which lays down the obligation for the central administration of a financial institution to be situated in its home Member State and that the institution actually exercises its activities therein. As a consequence, it is introduced as a requirement for the exercise of the credit institution activity in Spain that the institution has in national territory both its registered office and its effective administration and management.

Secondly, and in order to prevent financial institutions from maintaining certain close links with other natural or legal persons and the same-or the right applied to persons with whom they are being held the proper exercise of prudential supervision, the Community rules provide for the absence of such links to be granted or maintained. It is therefore appropriate to introduce as an additional requirement for the exercise of the activity of a credit institution in Spain a new criterion for the assessment of the suitability of shareholders holding significant shareholdings, by virtue of the which may be considered as not meeting the suitability requirement where the close links that the institution maintains or are to maintain, in the case of authorisation, with other natural or legal persons, or the rules applicable to any of the , they hinder the proper exercise of supervision.

In its virtue, on the proposal of the Minister of Economy and Finance, in agreement with the Council of State and after deliberation of the Council of Ministers at its meeting on April 26, 1996,

D I S P O N G O:

CHAPTER I

Definition and activities of credit financial institutions

Article 1. Definition, activities and reservation of denomination.

1. Credit institutions shall have the consideration of a credit institution and their principal activity shall be to exercise one or more of the following activities:

a) Loan and credit, including consumer credit, mortgage credit and commercial transaction financing.

b) "factoring", with or without recourse, and the complementary activities of the same, such as those of research and classification of the clientele, accounting of debtors and, in general, any other activity that tends to to encourage the administration, evaluation, security and financing of credits born in domestic or international commercial traffic, which are transferred to them.

(c) Financial leasing, including the following additional activities:

1. Maintenance and preservation activities of the assets transferred.

2. A Financing Concession connected to a financial, current, or future lease operation.

3. Intermediation and financial leasing operations management.

4. Non-financial leasing activities that may or may not be supplemented by a purchase option.

5. Business Advice and reports.

d) The issue and management of credit cards.

e) The commission of guarantees and guarantees and subscription of similar commitments.

2. As ancillary activities, credit financial institutions may perform any other activities that are necessary for a better performance of their core business.

3. The name of "credit establishment", as well as its abbreviation "E.F.C.", is reserved for these entities, which are obliged to include them in their social denomination.

Article 2. Financing of credit financial institutions.

1. Credit institutions shall not be able to raise repayable funds from the public in the form of a deposit, loan, temporary disposal of financial assets or other analogues, whatever their destination. As a result, the deposit guarantee legislation will not apply to them.

2. For the purposes of the preceding paragraph, they shall not have the consideration of repayable funds from the public:

(a) Financing provided by credit institutions.

(b) The delivery of funds by entities belonging to the same group as defined in Article 4 of Law 24/1988 of 28 July of the Securities Market; or by the shareholders of the credit establishment which have a participation of at least 5 per 100 of its capital.

(c) Securities issues subject to the Securities Market Act and its implementing rules, provided that they are issued for a maturity of more than one month.

(d) Balances and other conditions in order to reduce the risks incurred by clients from their social object operations.

3. Credit institutions shall be able to securitize their assets subject to the general regulatory rules of the securitisation funds.

CHAPTER II

Legal framework for the creation of credit financial institutions

Article 3. Authorization and registration of credit financial institutions.

1. It will be up to the Minister for Economic Affairs and Finance, after the Bank of Spain, to authorise the creation of credit institutions. The authorisation shall specify the activities which the credit establishment may carry out, in accordance with the programme presented by it.

2. The application for authorisation must be settled within three months of its receipt in the Directorate-General of the Treasury and Financial Policy, or at the time of completion of the required documentation, and, in any case, within six months of the months after their receipt. Where the application is not settled within the time limit, it may be deemed to be dismissed. For the effectiveness of the alleged dismissal, the certification of the alleged act referred to in Article 44 of Law No 30/1992 of 26 November of the Legal Regime of Public Administrations and of the Procedure shall be requested. Common Administrative.

3. Once the authorization has been obtained and after its incorporation and registration in the Commercial Registry, the credit financial institutions must, before starting their activities, be registered in the Special Register of establishments credit finance to be created at the Banco de España. The entries in this Special Register, as well as the casualties, will be published in the "Official State Gazette" and will be communicated to the European Commission. The authorization may be revoked if, since the granting of the authorization, one year has elapsed without the financial establishment of credit initiating its operations for reasons attributable to the promoters.

Article 4. Authorization of credit financial institutions subject to the control of foreign persons.

1. The creation of Spanish credit institutions whose control, in accordance with the terms of Article 4 of Law 24/1988, of 28 July, of the Securities Market, will be exercised by foreign persons, is subject to the set to the effect in this Royal Decree.

2. Where the control of the Spanish credit establishment is to be carried out by a credit institution authorised in another Member State of the European Union, by the dominant entity of one of those entities, or by the same natural or legal persons who control a credit institution authorised in another Member State, the Banco de España, before issuing the report referred to in Article 3 (1), shall consult the authorities responsible for the supervision of the foreign credit institution.

3. Where the control of the Spanish credit establishment is to be carried out by one or more persons, whether or not credit institutions, domiciled or authorised in a non-Member State of the European Union, the the provision of a guarantee covering all the activities of that entity. The authorization may be refused, in addition to the reasons provided for in the preceding articles, when it has been communicated to Spain, in accordance with Article 9 of the Second Banking Coordination Directive, of 15 In December 1989, a decision taken by the Council of the European Union to verify that Community credit institutions did not benefit in that State from a treatment offering the same conditions of competition as their entities National and non-compliance with the conditions of effective market access.

In this case, the Minister of Economy and Finance may also suspend the granting of the authorization or limit its effects.

The authorisations granted to the credit institutions referred to in this paragraph shall be communicated by the Bank of Spain to the Commission of the European Union, specifying the structure of the group to which belongs to the controlled entity.

Article 5. Requirements for exercising the activity.

1. They shall be necessary to obtain and retain the authorisation of a credit establishment:

a) Revestir the form of public limited company constituted by the procedure of simultaneous and indefinite foundation.

b) Have a minimum social capital of 850 million pesetas, paid in full in cash and represented by nominative shares.

c) By statutory limitation of their social object to the activities of a credit financial establishment.

d) That shareholders holding significant shares are deemed appropriate, in accordance with the terms of this Article and Article 7.

e) Contar with a Board of Directors consisting of no less than three members. All of them shall be persons of recognised commercial and professional good repute and must possess at least two of them adequate knowledge and experience to perform their duties. Such good repute, knowledge and experience must also be provided in the general or similar directors of the institution, as well as in the natural persons representing legal persons who are counsellors.

Compete commercial and professional honorability in those who have been observing a personal trajectory of respect to the commercial laws or others that regulate the economic activity and the life of the business, as well as the good commercial, financial and banking practices. In any event, it is understood that they lack such good repute as those who have a criminal record or are prosecuted or, in the case of the procedure referred to in Title III, Book IV, of the Law on Criminal Procedure, self-opening of the oral trial in which they appear to be charged with crimes of falsehood, against the Public Finance, of infidelity in the custody of documents, receptation and other related conduct, of violation of secrets, of embezzlement of public flows, discovery and disclosure of secrets or property; disabled to exercise public or administrative charges or management, in financial institutions; and the non-rehabilitated and non-disabled.

possess adequate knowledge and experience to perform their duties in credit financial institutions who have performed, for a period of not less than two years, senior management, management, control or advice of financial institutions or functions of similar responsibility in other entities, public or private, with a dimension at least analogous to the entity intended to be created.

f) Contar with good administrative and accounting organization, as well as adequate internal control procedures to ensure the sound and prudent management of the entity. In particular, the Management Board shall establish appropriate operating rules and procedures to facilitate the fulfilment of all its obligations by all its members and to assume the responsibilities of the Board of Directors. agreement with the rules of ordination and discipline of the credit financial institutions, the Law

of Anonymous Companies or other provisions that are applicable.

g) Having its registered office, as well as its effective administration and management on national territory.

2. The credit institutions must comply at all times with the requirements laid down in the previous paragraph and have own resources of not less than 850 million pesetas, excluding those referred to in the Article 20 (1) (g) and (h) of Royal Decree 1343/1992 of 6 November 1992. However:

(a) For lack of commercial or professional honorability of directors or directors, only the revocation shall proceed if the persons concerned do not cease in their posts in one month, counted from the requirement that the Bank of Spain. There shall be no lack of good repute for the mere fact that, in the performance of his duties, a counsellor or director is charged or prosecuted for any of the offences referred to in paragraph 1 (e). previous.

(b) No revocation shall be made for the inadequacy of own resources, as referred to in this paragraph, if they reach at least the four fifths of the minimum social capital and the insufficiency does not last more than 12 months. months.

3. The Bank of Spain is responsible for the creation and management of a High Charge Register for credit institutions, where the directors, directors-general and similar directors must be registered. For the registration in the Register of High Charges, the directors and directors general or assimilated must declare expressly, in the document that they accredit their acceptance of the charge, that they meet the requirements of good repute and, if necessary, the professionalism referred to in this Article, and that there are no incourses in any of the limitations or incompatibilities that apply to them.

Article 6. Requirements for the request.

1. The application for authorisation for the establishment of a credit establishment shall be addressed to the Directorate-General of the Treasury and Financial Policy in duplicate and shall be accompanied by the following documents:

a) Project of social statutes, accompanied by a registration certificate negative of the proposed social denomination.

(b) a programme of activities, in which the gender of the operations to be carried out, the administrative and accounting organisation and the internal control procedures shall be specified in a specific manner.

(c) The relationship of partners to be the company, with an indication of their holdings in the share capital. In the case of partners with the consideration of legal persons, shares in their capital representing a percentage higher than 5 per 100 shall be indicated. In the case of partners who are to hold a significant participation, they shall also be provided, if they are natural persons, information on their career and professional activity, as well as on their status; and if they are legal persons, annual accounts and management report, with the audit reports if any, of the last two financial years, the composition of its administrative bodies and the detailed structure of the group to which they may belong.

d) Relation of persons who have to integrate the first board of directors and of those who have to serve as general or assimilated directors, with detailed information on the trajectory and professional activity of all them.

(e) Justification of having constituted at the Banco de España, in cash or in public debt, a deposit equivalent to 20 per 100 of the minimum social capital provided for in Article 5.

2. In any event, it shall be appropriate for the promoters to require all data, reports or records to be considered appropriate to verify compliance with the conditions and requirements set out in this Royal Decree.

Article 7. Refusal of the request.

1. The Minister for Economic Affairs and Finance shall, by means of a reasoned decision, refuse to authorise the establishment of a credit establishment where the conditions laid down in Articles 5 and 6 above are not met and, in particular, where, taking into account the need to ensure sound and prudent management of the projected entity, the suitability of the shareholders to have a significant stake in the institution is not considered appropriate. For these purposes:

(a) Significant participation in a credit establishment shall be understood to be such that it reaches, directly or indirectly, at least 5 per 100 of the capital or voting rights of the institution; or to reach the percentage point, make it possible to exert a significant influence on it.

b) The suitability will be appreciated, among other factors, depending on:

1. The commercial and professional honorability of shareholders, in the sense provided for in Article 5, paragraph e). This good repute shall always be presumed when the shareholders are public administrations or entities dependent on them.

2. The heritage resources that these shareholders have to meet the commitments they have made.

3. The transparency in the structure of the group to which the entity may eventually belong and, in general, the existence of serious difficulties in inspecting or obtaining the necessary information on the development of its activities.

4. The possibility that the institution may be exposed, inappropriately, to the risk of the non-financial activities of its promoters, or when, in the case of financial activities, the institution's stability or control may be be affected by the high risk of those.

5. The possibility that the good exercise of the supervision of the entity will be hindered by the close links that it maintains with other natural or legal persons, by the laws, regulations or administrative authorities of the country to whose right it is subject to any such natural or legal person, or problems related to the application of those provisions.

For these purposes, there are close links when two or more natural or legal persons are joined by:

1. A link of control within the meaning of Article 4 of Law 24/1988, of the Stock Market; or

2. The fact of owning, directly or indirectly, or by means of a control link, 20 per 100 or more of the voting rights or capital of a company or entity.

2. The Bank of Spain shall, without prejudice to the judicial remedies against the decision taken, refuse the application, and without prejudice to the judicial remedies, to the refund of the deposit made. The return will also be returned in the event of waiver of the request.

3. The deposit provided for in Article 6 (1) (e) shall be released after the company has been incorporated and entered in the Special Register of the Banco de España, as well as in the case of revocation of the authorization in accordance with the provisions of the Article 57a of the Law on Banking Management of 31 December 1946.

Article 8. Amendment of the social statutes.

1. The amendment of the social statutes of credit institutions shall be subject to the authorisation and registration procedure laid down in Article 3, but the application for authorisation must be settled within the two months following receipt by the Directorate-General of the Treasury and Financial Policy or at the time of completion of the required documentation, which may be deemed to be estimated. For the effectiveness of the presumed estimate, the certification of the alleged act referred to in Article 44 of Law 30/1992, of 26 November, of the Legal Regime of Public Administrations and of the Procedure must be requested. Common Administrative.

2. They shall not require prior authorization, even if they must be communicated to the Banco de España, within a period of no more than 15 working days following the adoption of the relevant agreement, the amendments to the social statutes which they have for object:

a) Change of the registered office within the national territory.

b) Increase in social capital.

c) Textually incorporate mandatory or prohibitive legal or regulatory precepts, or comply with judicial or administrative decisions.

(d) Those other amendments in respect of which the Directorate-General of the Treasury and Financial Policy, in response to prior consultation made for the purpose by the financial establishment concerned, has considered unnecessary, due to its limited relevance, the processing of the authorization.

3. If the communication received, the amendments go beyond what is provided for in this paragraph, the Bank of Spain shall inform the parties concerned within 30 days, to review them or, where appropriate, to comply with the procedure for the authorization of the paragraph 1.

Article 9. Extending activities.

When a credit financial establishment intends to expand its core activities, the same procedure will be followed as for the amendment of the statutes. The authorisation may be refused, in particular, if the institution does not meet the solvency requirements corresponding to it, or does not have an administrative and accounting organisation and internal control procedures appropriate to the new ones. activities.

Article 10. Merger of credit financial institutions.

1. The entity resulting from the merger of two or more credit institutions may carry out the activities for which the merged establishments are authorised.

2. The merger shall be authorised by the Minister for Economic Affairs and Finance, in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 8, but the time limit for the decision shall be three months.

Additional disposition first. Regulatory modification.

1. The following Articles of Royal Decree 1245/1995 of 14 July 1995 on the establishment of banks, cross-border activity and other matters relating to the legal status of credit institutions are amended:

1. Paragraph 1 (h) is added to Article 2 (1) with the following content:

"h) having its registered office, as well as its effective administration and management, on national territory."

2. º A paragraph 5. to Article 4.1.b. is added with the following content:

" 5. The possibility that the good exercise of the supervision of the entity will be hindered by the close links that it maintains with other natural or legal persons, by the laws, regulations or administrative authorities of the country to whose right it is subject to any such natural or legal person, or problems related to the application of those provisions.

For these purposes, there are close links when two or more natural or legal persons are joined by:

(a) A control link in the sense that determines Article 4 of Law 24/1988, of the Stock Market; or

(b) The fact that they hold, directly or indirectly, or through a control link, 20 per 100 or more of the voting rights or capital of a company or entity. "

3. The references to paragraph 2 in the last subparagraph of paragraph 4 and in Article 9 (5) should be made to paragraph 3 of that same article.

4. Paragraph 1 (a) of Article 19 (1) is worded as follows:

" (a) For the month following each calendar quarter, the composition of its share capital, relating to all shareholders, in the case of banks and credit institutions, or all holders of contributions, in the case of credit unions, which, at the end of that period, have the consideration of financial institutions and those which do not, in their name, have shares or contributions which represent a percentage of the share capital of the an entity equal to or greater than 0,25 per 100, in the case of banks, of 1 per 100 in the case of credit unions, or 2,50 per 100 in that of credit financial institutions. "

2. The following amendments are made to Royal Decree 84/1993 of 22 January, approving the Regulation of the Development of Law 13/1989, of 26 May, of credit unions:

1. ° A paragraph (g) is added to Article 2 with the following content:

"g) having its registered office, as well as its effective administration and management, on national territory."

2. º A paragraph 2 is added to Article 5 with the following content:

" 2. The authorisation may also be refused where the proper exercise of the supervision of the institution may be hindered by the close links which it maintains with other natural or legal persons, by legal provisions, regulatory or administrative authorities of the country to whose right it is subject to any such natural or legal person, or problems related to the application of those provisions.

For these purposes, there are close links when two or more natural or legal persons are joined by:

(a) A control link in the sense that determines Article 4 of Law 24/1988, of the Stock Market, or

(b) The fact that they hold, directly or indirectly, or through a control link, 20 per 100 or more of the voting rights or capital of a company or entity. "

3. The current Article 5 (2) becomes paragraph 3.

3. The following amendments are made to Royal Decree 1838/1975 of 3 July, to create savings and distribution boxes for the liquid benefits of these entities:

1. The following is added to Article 2 (1) (e) with the following content:

"(e) having its registered office, as well as its effective administration and management, on national territory."

2. º A paragraph 4 is added to Article 2 with the following content:

" 4. The authorization may be refused if the proper exercise of the supervision of the entity may be hindered by the close links which it maintains with other natural or legal persons, by the laws, regulations or administrative authorities of the country to whose right it is subject to any such natural or legal person, or problems related to the application of those provisions.

For these purposes, there are close links when two or more natural or legal persons are joined by:

(a) A control link in the sense that determines Article 4 of Law 24/1988, of the Stock Market; or

(b) The fact that they hold, directly or indirectly, or through a control link, 20 per 100 or more of the voting rights or capital of a company or entity. "

Additional provision second. Amendment of Royal Decree 685/1982 of 17 March.

The following amendments are made to Royal Decree 685/1982 of 17 March, which develops certain aspects of Law 2/1981 of 25 March of Regulation of the Mortgage Market:

1. A new paragraph (h) is added to Article 2 (1) with the following wording:

"h) credit financial institutions."

2. A new wording is given to Article 43 (2), which remains as follows:

" Two. Mortgage cards and mortgage bonds may be issued by credit institutions, provided that the conditions and requirements that are required in this Royal Decree are met. "

First transient disposition. Period for the transformation of companies and credit institutions.

Mortgage credit companies, financing entities and leasing companies authorized for the entry into force of this Royal Decree must be transformed into credit financial institutions. before 1 January 1997.

Second transient disposition. Extending the social object.

1. The transformation shall not require administrative authorisation where it does not entail an extension of the social object of the new credit financial establishment in relation to that which it had as a limited operational credit institution.

It shall be understood that it does not involve the extension of the social object when the financing institutions which are transformed into a credit establishment adopt as the main activity those provided for in paragraphs (a), (b), (d) and (e) of the Article 1 of this Royal Decree; where the leasing companies adopt as the principal activity as provided for in paragraph (c) of that Article; and where the "factoring" entities adopt as the principal activity as provided for in the (b). In these cases, the entity will register in the Special Register of the Banco de España once the change of statutes has been registered in the Commercial Registry.

2. Where the conversion scenario provided for in the preceding paragraph is concerned and the resulting credit facility has own resources of less than 850 million pesetas, once adjusted with the deduction provided for in the Article 5 (2) of this Royal Decree shall, as long as it is in that situation, comply with the following rules:

(a) It shall not reduce its share capital, and its own adjusted own resources may not fall from the highest level they have reached as of the date of its transformation unless, as a result of a reorganisation operation, the purpose of reconstituting its solvency is to allow the Banco de España to temporarily authorize it.

b) They will have to raise their own resources adjusted to 850 million pesetas, when changes in their shareholding that involve the existence of new dominant shareholders or control groups, in the sense of the article 4 of the Securities Market Act.

(c) Where a merger takes place between two or more establishments whose own adjusted own resources do not meet the expected minimum social capital figures, the basic own resources of the resulting institution shall, except express authorisation of the authority to be resolved on the merger, the minimum capital required for the newly created entities, at the time the merger is registered in the Trade Register.

3. Where the transformation involves an extension of the social object, it shall require administrative authorisation, which may not be granted if the institution does not have the minimum own resources required for the establishment of credit institutions. and that it will conform to the procedure provided for in Article 8 of this Royal Decree for the reform of the statutes. Once authorized and registered the appropriate change of statutes in the Commercial Registry will register the financial establishment of credit in the Banco de España. This rule shall also apply where the transformation is simultaneous to the merger of several limited operational credit institutions belonging to different categories.

Transitional provision third. Transformation of credit institutions.

Mortgage credit companies, financing entities and leasing companies may only be transformed into other types of credit institutions subject to the procedure and with respect to the requirements referred to in the rules applicable to them.

Transitional disposition fourth. Loss of Financial Entity Condition.

Limited operating-scope credit institutions which have not been transformed on 1 January 1997 into credit institutions or other credit institutions shall lose their status as an institution The Bank of Spain will not be allowed to register its registration with the Bank of Spain. From that date on, the entity concerned shall not be able to carry out any of the activities of credit institutions or credit institutions.

Transient disposition fifth. Deadline for the adaptation of requests for the creation of credit institutions.

The promoters of the files for the creation of new credit institutions with limited operational scope that are currently pending authorisation will have a period of three months to adapt their requests to the in this Royal Decree.

After that period without having carried out the aforementioned adaptation, it will be understood that they will be removed from their previous requests and will proceed to the return of the previous deposits constituted in the Banco de España.

Transitional disposition sixth. Regulation of deposits of credit institutions.

1. Upon the entry into force of this Royal Decree, financing entities, leasing companies and mortgage credit companies may not receive public funds in the form of a deposit, loan, temporary disposal of assets financial or other similar instruments which are not subject to the rules for the management and discipline of the Securities Market with a maturity of more than 1 January 1997, nor may they amend existing time-deposit contracts involving their extension or extension beyond that date.

2. Without prejudice to the provisions of Article 2 of this Royal Decree, the time deposits which at the time of their conversion into the financial establishment of credit have been collected by the financing institutions, leasing companies financial and mortgage credit companies, shall remain temporarily until the time of their termination, unless the holder of such termination proceeds to their disposal or liquidation.

3. The remaining deposits, other than those referred to in the previous paragraph, which the financial institutions may not maintain in accordance with the provisions of Article 2 of this Royal Decree, must be cancelled before 1 January of this year. 1997.

Single repeal provision. Regulatory repeal.

On 1 January 1997, they will be repealed:

(a) Royal Decree 896/1977 of 28 March on the arrangements for financing institutions.

(b) The Order of the Minister for Economic Affairs and Finance of 14 February 1978 on the arrangements for financial institutions.

(c) The Order of the Minister for Economic Affairs and Finance of 13 May 1981 on financing entities specializing in factoring operations.

(d) Paragraphs (e) and (g) of Article 2.1, the second section of Chapter I and Article 43 (3) of Royal Decree 685/1982 of 17 March 1982, which sets out certain aspects of Law 2/1981 of 25 March 1982, Regulation of the Mortgage Market.

e) Royal Decree 771/1989 of 23 June establishing the legal regime for credit institutions with limited operational scope.

(f) The Order of 8 February 1991, for the development of the sixth provision of Law 26/1988 of 29 July 1988 on the discipline and intervention of credit institutions.

Final disposition first. Basic character.

This Royal Decree is dictated in accordance with the provisions of Article 149.1.11. and 13. of the Constitution.

Final disposition second. Faculty of development, and entry into force.

1. The Minister of Economy and Finance is empowered to lay down the rules for the development of this Royal Decree.

2. This provision shall enter into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Gazette of the State.

Given in Madrid to April 26, 1996.

JOHN CARLOS R.

The Minister of Economy and Finance,

PEDRO SOLBES MIRA