BANKING AND FINANCE | The Joint Divisions of the Italian Supreme Court can rule on the validity of the “mutuo solutorio”

On 10 July 2024, the Second Civil Division of the Italian Supreme Court issued its Order No. 18903/2024 referring to the First President, for possible assignment to the Joint Divisions, the matter concerning the validity of the so-called “mutuo solutorio” (consisting of crediting a current account with the amount necessary to settle a previous debt of the account holder towards the lending bank) with specific regard to ascertaining whether this method to disburse the amount – and the related obligation of the borrower to use such amount to extinguish a different debt position towards the same lender – constitutes a datio rei capable of effectively making the amount available to the borrower or only translates into a mere accounting transaction, which can be qualified as a pactum de non petendo ad tempus, apt to postpone the maturity of previous debts.

Newsletter n. 99 – August/September 2024