Title V: Publicity and Claim Procedure

Section 65 bis. (1) The Central Bank is governed by the principle of transparency in the exercise of public functions as enshrined in article 8 second paragraph of the Political Constitution of the Republic and in articles 3 and 4 of the Law on Transparency of the Civil Service and Access to Information on State Administration.

Publicity and access to information of the Bank shall, as appropriate, be governed by the following rules of said law cited in the preceding paragraph: Title II; Title III, except for article 9; and articles 10 to 22 of Title IV. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the extension referred to in the second paragraph of said article 22, shall be adopted by resolution of the Board requiring at least the favorable vote of 4 Board members, and with regard to the preservation of pertinent documents, the provisions of article 86 shall be applicable. Any references in said rules to authority, or director or head are understood to refer to the Governor of the Bank.

If the legal deadline to deliver the requested information expires, or if the request is rejected on any of the grounds authorized by law, the applicant may appeal to the Court of Appeals of Santiago, in accordance with article 69. The Court, in its decision on said appeal, shall sanction the offender by charging 20% to 50% of his earnings.

The Bank, by Board resolution published in the Official Gazette, shall establish any other rules and instructions necessary to comply with the laws cited.

Section 66. Moreover, the Bank shall reserve all information regarding any of its money credit transactions or investments made according to articles 34, 36, 37, 38, 54, 55 and 56; regarding those coming from the information required by articles 40, 42 and 49 on international exchange transactions or pertinent powers granted to it by other laws; and regarding the information it requires to fulfil its function bestowed under article 53; and it may not provide information about said transactions except to the parties thereto, or to their agents or legal representatives. (2)

The above provisions shall not apply in the event that the respective information is requested by the Superintendency of Banks and Financial Institutions in connection with supervisory activities being performed with regard to entities under its control or by the National Customs Service, in the case of documents referred to in Section 45, or by this Service, the Income Revenue Service or the General Treasury in the case of auditing related with requests for tariff or tax exceptions, and export promotion, or the National Economic Prosecutor, pursuant to DL 211 of 1973, when dealing with issues under its competence previously approved by the Resolving Power Commission. Nor shall the discretion requirement apply in the case of information requested by the Financial Analysis Unit of the Public Prosecutor on the grounds of suspicious activities or crimes as defined in the law by which the mentioned Unit was established. (3) (5)

Likewise, the requirement of discretion shall not apply whenever a specific record is requested by ordinary or military courts or by the Preventive or Resolving Commissions of Decree Law 211, of 1973. (4) (5) (6)

Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Bank may provide general information as to transactions on a non-personalized basis but only for statistical and public informational purposes.

Section 67. Resolutions or decisions adopted pursuant to subparagraph 2 of Section 34, or in the exercise of the authority granted under Sections 35, 40, 42 and 49, and all those of general applicability and those which in the opinion of the Board or any of its members require public knowledge, shall be published in the Official Gazette. For all legal purposes, the effective date of such resolution or decision shall be that of its publication, unless the resolution expressly provides a different date. Board resolutions or decisions of a private nature shall be notified to the public by means of its inclusion in summary form on a notice to be affixed for at least three banking business days inside the main office of the Bank in Santiago and in its branch offices, in a place where the general public has access.

The above notice shall be affixed within the five banking business days following the adoption of such resolution or decision.

Without prejudice to the foregoing, resolutions or decisions referred to in this Section shall be notified to the party concerned by certified mail addressed to the domicile that may have been registered at the Bank. If such domicile is not so registered and the person concerned has been connected with the Bank through a banking entity authorized to engage in foreign exchange transactions on the Formal Exchange Market, such communication shall be addressed to such entity, which procedure shall be deemed to comply with the obligation established under this paragraph.

In any event, failure to give such notice shall not affect the validity of the corresponding resolution or decision.

Section 69. Decisions, regulations, resolutions, orders or instructions issued by the Bank pursuant to its authority under Sections 34, 35, 36, 58 and 61 and in Subtitle Eight of Title III which are claimed to be illegal, may be appealed by the interested party to the Court of Appeals of Santiago, where the hearing shall be conducted in a chamber thereof, in the manner, and under the terms and conditions set forth in this Title.

The period for submitting such appeal shall be fifteen business days counting from the date notice of such decision, regulation, resolution, order or instruction being appealed is served.

At the time of the filing of the appeal, a certificate of deposit extended to the order of the court in an amount equivalent to one per cent of the aggregate amount of the transaction or of the damage being claimed must be attached. For purposes of calculating such percentage, the greater value resulting thereby shall be considered. In any event, the maximum amount of the deposit shall not exceed six hundred monthly tax units.

Section 70. The claimant shall clearly state in his writ the legal provision he deems to have been violated, the manner in which such violation occurred, the reasons why such decision, regulation, resolution, order or instruction caused harm to him and the estimated amount of the damages.

The court may declare the appeal inadmissible if the writ fails to comply with the above requirements or if the deposit is not made in the manner provided for in the preceding Section.

Section 71. Should the court agree to take knowledge of the appeal, it shall allow the Bank a period of ten business days to file the answer to the claim.

Once the writ of answer of the Bank has been filed or its failure to do so within the legal period has been declared, the court shall, if it deems it fit, open a period for the production of evidence, not to exceed fifteen days, and then shall issue its decision forthwith or after a hearing, within the period of 30 days, which decision may be appealed within the period of five business days to the Supreme Court. Such appeal shall be decided without requiring the appearance of the parties and without a hearing, forthwith or after the case is informed to the court by a court official.

Section 72.Should the appeal be finally rejected, the amount of the deposits referred to in Section 69 shall be lost to the claimant, unless the court determines that there were plausible grounds for the appeal.

Section 73. Should the appeal be sustained, the court shall order all appropriate measures in order to provide prompt and effective remedy to the event or action that gave rise to the appeal and the amount of the deposit shall be returned to the claimant. Once the judgment has become final, the party having obtained the judgment may have recourse to the ordinary courts of law to sue for damages and for the application of penalties as applicable in accordance with general rules.

Section 74. In cases where the legal provisions deemed violated are those contained in Decree Law 211 of 1973, the affected party may file a complaint with the Commissions established thereunder in accordance with the procedure established thereby, but only within the period specified in the second paragraph of Section 69.

  1. Article 65 bis was incorporated in Title V of this law by letter a) of article 7 of Law  20,285 on access to public information, published in the Official Gazette on  20 August , 2008. Under the Transitional Article of Law 20,285, this article 65 bis came into force on 20 April 2009. Finally, the Law on Transparency and Access to Public Information of the State Administration is contained in article 1 of Law 20,285.
  2. The first paragraph of this article was replaced, as appears in the text, by letter b) of article 7 of Law 20,285 on access to public information, published in the Official Gazette on  20 August , 2008. According to the transitory article of Law 20,285, the new first paragraph of article 66 came into force on  20 April , 2009.
  3. Paragraph amended, as it appears in the text, by Section 22 of Law 19.041, published in the Official Gazette on 11 February 1991, and by Section 15, letter a) of Law 19,705, published in the Official Gazette on 20 December 2000, and by Section 21 of Law 19,913, published in the Official Gazette on 18 December 2003.
  4. Paragraph replaced, as it appears in the text, by Section 15, letter b) of Law 19,705, published in the Official Gazette on 20 December 2000.
  5. Any mention made of the Resolving and Preventative Committees are suppressed by Law 19,911, published in the Official Gazette on 14 November 2003 which created the Defence of  Free Competition Tribunal, which became the legal continuation of said committees.
  6. The Decree with Force of Law No.1 of the Ministry of Economy, Development and Reconstruction, published in the Official Gazette on 7 March 2005 contains the complete, coordinated and systematized text of Decree Law 211 of 1973, which is the law on the defence of free competition and is available in this revised code of laws.