To Recognise the Right to “Free” Credit is Impermissible and Absurd

In Slovenia, banks once routinely concluded credit contracts with a currency clause in Swiss francs, as was either permitted or mandated by law. The current regulation of these credits presents challenges, both in terms of retroactivity and the principle of legal certainty. The majority of banks in Slovenia fulfilled their explanatory duty adhering to the then-current legislation. Furthermore, the involvement of a notary and explicit warnings in the credit agreements in- dicate that the majority of credit agreements in Swiss francs in Slovenia either meet the conditions or meet the standard that these agreements do not contain unfair terms. Consequently, practices that were entirely normal a decade ago are now deemed unfair. The article is a short report from a lecture by Minu An- amaria Gvardjančič, PhD, a lawyer from Ljubljana who deals with such cases in the courts.

Key words: currency clause, credits, information duty, Swiss francs, CHF, Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia.