Sara Irún, minister of the Secretariat for Consumer and User Protection (Sedeco), asked the Executive branch to fully veto the law requiring promissory notes to be returned once a debt has been paid and providing sanctions for noncompliance. The request was submitted through the Ministry of Industry and Commerce (MIC), which serves as the link with the government.
The Senate accepted last week the changes made by the Chamber of Deputies to the bill. The approved text establishes that the creditor must return the document when the obligation has been extinguished and provides for a fine equal to 20% of the promissory note’s value if it is improperly retained.
Irún said Sedeco already imposes administrative sanctions on companies or creditors that fail to return paid documents. She said the decree regulating the secretariat allows fines ranging from 50 to 10,000 daily minimum wages, depending on the severity and circumstances of each case.
The minister also questioned the law’s wording because it expands Sedeco’s scope of action to disputes between private parties. “We are an administrative institution when there is a consumer relationship,” she said. In her view, the secretariat cannot replace the Judiciary or act outside the powers established for consumer protection.
The proposal was presented amid the scandal known as the “promissory note mafia,” linked to contested judicial collection actions and the use of debt documents in different proceedings. Irún acknowledged that the initiative seeks to address this problem, but said that purpose does not justify approving a rule with unclear institutional limits.
The possible veto still depends on a decision by the Executive branch. Until then, the law approved by Congress does not produce the effects set out in the text, and the return of paid documents remains subject to the administrative and judicial rules already in place.