The National Bank of Panama announced that it will ask President José Raúl Mulino to veto Bill 388, which seeks to establish the administrative recognition of the statute of limitations on debts by banks and financial entities. The request was confirmed by the entity's general manager, Javier Carrizo Esquivel, who considers the initiative to be "infeasible and inconvenient." Carrizo explained that the proposal clashes with the Constitution, the Commercial Code, and other legal norms, as it aims to grant powers that, in his opinion, do not correspond to banking entities. The official warned that the bank has the obligation to manage the collection of loans, as it handles money that mainly belongs to depositors. The manager detailed that for every dollar a bank lends, 90 cents belong to depositors and only 10 cents to the private bank owner or the State, in the case of the National Bank. "We cannot be so carefree about the expiration of these loans," stated Carrizo, who also emphasized that the relationship between debtor and creditor is a contractual matter. In his opinion, accelerating the expiration of financial obligations makes no sense at this time. The bill was presented by deputy Ernesto Cedeño and establishes that it would apply to banks with a general and international license, financial entities, savings and credit cooperatives, and credit card issuers, among other organizations supervised by the Panama's Superintendent of Banks. The proposal also states that any debtor may request the recognition of the statute of limitations on a debt, either in writing or through electronic means. In that case, the financial entity would be obliged to receive the request through its Complaint Attention System (SAR) and provide proof of receipt. That is why he assured that the issue of the expiration of loans cannot be taken lightly. "They are playing with the depositors' money."
