Last July 2015, the Law on second chance mechanism, reduction of financial burden and other social order measures, which establishes the right of the debtor (whether a natural person, businessman or consumer) to request that their debts be forgiven, under conditions.
Since then, so far this year in 2016, the autonomous community that has initiated the most cases in this alternative mediation formula to the courts is Catalonia (601), followed by the Valencian Community (474), Madrid (473) and Andalusia (308).
The data reflects that this The possibility of exoneration in debt situations is increasingly gaining ground in Spain, although there is still a long way to go.
In cases of insolvency, bankruptcy or suspension of payments, the bankruptcy mediation, which is the step prior to bankruptcy. It plays a fundamental role, since it prevents any debt situation, whether personal or due to a failed business, from leading to the end of said person or company.
This is an alternative route to the courts that is already highly consolidated in the rest of Europe and the United States. According to data from the Registry of the General Council of Economists, cases of bankruptcy mediation in France amount to 100,000 a year, and in the US they exceed 200,000, while in Spain 800 bankruptcy mediations were held in the first half of 2016 (with a growth of 878% in the last year) and More than 150 cases have been resolved since the 2015 law went into effect.
In our country, there are almost 3.5 million people who face blocking situations in front of banking entities. With current Spanish legislation, Credits with the Administration are excluded from the exemption (Social Security and Treasury) and alimony payments after marital separations, while in the US and other European countries, the exoneration is complete. Furthermore, in Europe only three years have to pass for the exoneration to be definitive and in Spain a minimum of five.
