Representatives of foreign financial entities not authorized to operate in Argentina

On February 8, 2008, the Argentine Central Bank issued Communication “A” 4775, which introduced changes in Chapter VI of Circular CREFI-2, Communication “A” 2241, on representatives of foreign financial entities not authorized to operate in Argentina.

Among the main changes, the new text provides that only individuals may request authorization of the Superintendency of Financial Entities ("SFE") to act as a representatives of foreign financial entities not authorized to operate in Argentina. The previous text allowed not only individuals but also legal entities to request such authorization.

Moreover, the new text introduced by Communication “A” 4775 establishes that the authorization granted by the SFE will be conditioned upon the filing by the representative of the registration with the Public Registry of Commerce as the person in charge of the representative office of the foreign financial entity, within 90 days following such authorization.

Lastly, Communication “A” 4775 establishes in its temporary dispositions that foreign financial entities not authorized to operate in Argentina will have 90 days as from the date of issuance of the Communication to:

i)             request of the Argentine Central Bank a new authorization to appoint an individual as representative, in the case the current representative is a legal entity; or

ii)            submit to the Argentine Central Bank the filing made before the Public Registry of Commerce in order to get the registration of the representative as the person in charge of the representative office of the foreign financial entity, in the case the current representative is an individual.