CONTRACTUL DE CONT BANCAR CURENT

The introductory part of the study analyzes the regulatory framework of the current bank account contract before and after the entry into force of the current Civil Code and the transitional legal provisions, depending on the limited and unlimited duration of this contract. In dealing with the legal relationship generated by the current bank account contract, it was emphasized that at least one of the contracting parties must be a credit institution and that the obligation to conclude the current bank account contract for certain categories of natural or legal persons is conditioned by the legal constraints regarding the mandatory way of carrying out the receipts and payments imposed by the strengthening of the financial discipline, without this giving the contract a mandatory or forced character. As regards the content of the contract, its standardized character was underlined, including in terms of the system of transferring external clauses or specific regulations related to the policy of each bank in the contractual clauses referring thereto, of which the client is not aware and which often introduce abusive clauses. From this perspective of the adhesion character of the contract, which deprives the client from legal protection, the modest framework of the regulation has a significant contribution.
The object of the current account contract is treated in terms of the obligation of the credit institution to open the account and to carry out the credit or debit operation of the credit balance, but also of the client’s right to dispose of the credit balance and of its obligation to bear the bank commissions and charges. The legal characters of the current bank account contract were also analyzed, the attention being paid to the treatment of the adhesion character of the contract and to the one of transfer of ownership, because the latter can explain the whole mechanism of the contract functions. The exercise of the right of the account holder to dispose over the credit balance is supported by the current bank account contract, through which the credit institution makes payments in the name and on behalf of the account holder, in compliance with the instructions with which he mandated it, in accordance with the relevant banking legislation and regulations, including with the internal rules of the depository bank.
As regards the manner of exercising the right to dispose of the credit balance, the particularities of the exercise of this right by co-owners and co-holders were analyzed, as well as the issue of unavailability of the credit balance, the conditions and the limits of unavailability, by enforcement by garnishment. The clearing of balances, the conditions of its operation and its extended effects on the legal relations between the account holder and the credit institution were also discussed.
The double onerous character of the current bank account contract was analyzed also from the perspective of the bonuses granted by the credit institution for the amounts in the credit balance, but also from the perspective of the account holder, bound by the obligation to pay bank commissions and charges. The cessation of the current bank account contract was treated according to its definite or indefinite duration and depending on the existence of general or special clauses of cessation of the contract. The procedure of unilateral denounciation of the current bank account contract was associated with the written communication of the denouciation and the term of legal notice, conventional or established according to the customs. The effects of the cessation of the contract are accompanied by the closing of the account, by the withdrawal by the client of the amounts remained in the credit balance or their deposit in a collector account until they are handed over to the client.
The prescription term for the refund of the amounts from the account is that of 5 years and the moment from which it starts to flow is provided by Article 2190 of the Civil Code, differentiated as the cessation of the contract occurred on the initiative of the account holder or of the credit institution.