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Banco Popular - Right To Be Heard

About the right to be heard

Phase I: Registration period  06 August 2018 – 14 September 2018 (12:00 noon, Brussels time)

Phase II: Submission of written comments  06 November 2018 – 26 November 2018 (12:00 noon, Brussels time)

For more information on Phase I, click here

Target group

Those eligible to exercise the right to be heard are:

  1. Individuals and organisations who on 6 June 2017 were owners of the capital instruments (i.e. shares or debt instruments), which were either written down or converted and then transferred to Banco Santander (“Relevant Instruments”) as a result of the implementation of the Resolution Decision in respect of Banco Popular Español S.A. adopted by the SRB on 7 June 2017 (“Affected Shareholders or Creditors”), and
  2. Persons acting on behalf of those Affected Shareholders or Creditors (“Representatives”)

Objective of the registration

Registration was needed to:

  1. Allow former Shareholders and Creditors of Banco Popular Español, who held Relevant Instruments, (or their representatives) to express their interest in exercising their right to be heard and to submit supporting documentation proving their eligibility as Affected Shareholder or Creditor, and
  2. Allow the SRB to verify their status as an Affected Shareholder or Creditor.

How to register

The online form was accessible in English and Spanish here. The form is now closed.

Former Shareholders and Creditors were requested to submit:

  1. Their proof of identity (or the proof of identity of the party they were representing), and
  2. Their proof of ownership (or the proof of ownership of the party they were representing) of Relevant Instruments as of 6 June 2017.

See ‘Additional information’ section below for further information.

Documents had to be uploaded in JPEG, BMP, GIF, PNG, PDF or Word format with a maximum size of 1MB per file.

Former Shareholders and Creditors were requested to ensure that the information they submitted was correct as only the first submission per Affected Shareholder or Creditor would be considered.

In the cases where it was not possible for the SRB to verify their status on the basis of the submission, they (or their representative) were contacted by email and asked to provide the missing information. Only one resubmission of the additional information requested per Affected Shareholder or Creditor was possible.

Once they had submitted the requested information, they could download a copy of their submission.

View the registration form (now closed)

https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/Registration_form_in_light_of_the_right_to_be_heard

Additional information


The name of the former Shareholder or Creditor (or the name of the party represented) as declared in the registration form had to be identical to the name stated on the proof of identity and the proof of ownership. In case of any discrepancies between the two, a clear explanation of the difference had to be provided in section D of the registration form.

Examples of documents accepted as proof of identity included:

  • Natural persons – valid passport, valid national identity card, valid EU driving licence of the owner of  Relevant Instruments
  • Organisations – company constitution, articles of association, excerpt from the official register

For national identity cards and EU driving licences, both sides of the card had to be visible in the uploaded document.

For documents proving the identity of organisations, the name of the organisation had to be clearly legible.

The SRB reserved the right to request additional information in case the proof of identity provided was deemed inconclusive or in any way deficient.

The proof of ownership had to clearly state the former Shareholder’s or Creditor’s name and show that they or the party you they were representing were/was an owner of Relevant Instruments as of 6 June 2017.  

Examples of documents accepted as proof of ownership included:

  • Report generated from online investment platform of investment holdings clearly showing ownership of Relevant Instruments on 6 June 2017, bearing an official stamp of the bank/brokerage firm/firm with which the securities were held.
  • Statement from a bank or brokerage firm showing the final value of the investment position immediately after 7 June 2017.
  • Official message from a bank, brokerage firm or a public authority sent to the investor notifying them that Relevant Instruments have been written down or converted and transferred as a result of the Resolution Decision.
  • Any other document issued by a bank, a brokerage firm or a public authority based on which it can be verified beyond reasonable doubt that you (or the party you are representing) are an Affected Shareholder or Creditor.

The SRB reserved the right to request additional information in case the proof of ownership provided was deemed inconclusive or in any way deficient.

 

Phase II

 

Target group

Registered parties deemed eligible by the SRB based on its assessment of the submissions registered in the first phase of the process.

Objective of this second phase

To allow eligible registered parties, or their representative, to submit their written comments in respect of the preliminary decision not to grant them compensation and its underlying reasoning.

How to submit your written comments

Eligible parties, or, where appointed, their representative, received a unique personal link by email, on 6 November 2018, to a dedicated online portal, which remained open until Monday 26 November at 12.00 CET. Any comments submitted after this deadline could not be taken into account.

Comments may be saved and may subsequently be returned to at any time during this period by clicking again on the unique personal link received by email. Once comments have been submitted, no further submission was be possible nor is it possible to edit comments further.

Additional information
The comment form was available in the online platform in both Spanish and English. The form was structured according to the key elements of the SRB’s preliminary decision, enabling eligible registrants to respond to specific as well as more open-ended aspects of the preliminary decision and its underlying reasoning.

The questions will enable eligible parties to provide reasoning where they do not agree with the SRB’s preliminary decision and to explain why they consider alternative approaches/assumptions for the normal insolvency proceedings should have been adopted and, if they had been, how in their view these would have affected the final outcome.

Following the closure of the hearing phase on Monday 26 November 2018 at 12.00 CET, the SRB is carefully reviewing all comments received and will take them into account as appropriate in order to take its final decision on whether compensation is payable to affected Shareholders and Creditors.