De Bank en de Gehuwde Cliënt (The Bank and the Married Client: Legal Consequences [Belgian Law] of Marriage of a Person in his or her Relationship with the Bank)

Abstract:     
In this substantial paper of more than 70 pages I explore several aspects of the marital status and its impact on the relationship between the client, being married, and the bank. The analysis is done according to Belgian private law.

First I explore all legal consequences of having a bank account (and renting a safe), including the conflict of laws issues (private international law).

Then I analyse the credit facilities and loans of a client. Here we focus on the rules of how to engage in such loan, what are the conditions and formalities required by marital property law, as well as on the rules of how the bank/creditor may enforce loan payment. On this point I also examine the delicate situation in case of factual separation between the spouses, and the pending divorce procedure.

In a third part we go into the securities and collatorals that a spouse may give to its bank. This is a profound analysis of all possible aspects of how to put such collatoral and what the sacntions may be if these rules are not respected. This analysis also briefly includes some conflict of laws issues.

Note: Downloadable document is in Dutch

Keywords: Bank, Marriage, Divorce, Account, Loan, Securities, Collatorals, Safe, Conflict of Laws, Marital Property Law

JEL Classification: K 11, K 12

Accepted Paper Series