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Insolvency
of Natural persons in Colombia 1
Diana Lucia Talero Castro 2
Legal Advisor, Superintendent Office, Superintendency of Companies, Colombia.
10
Diana Lucia Talero Castro
En el Marco del Foro Global
de Ley, Justicia y Desarrollo,
que tuvo lugar del 10 al 14
de diciembre de 2012 se realizó la
reunión anual del grupo de expertos
en Insolvencia del Banco Mundial.
Durante el encuentro se completó
el trabajo referido al reporte en el
tratamiento de la insolvencia de las
personas naturales, iniciado en enero
del año 2011. Adicionalmente se invitó
1. Colombia´s presentation. Working Group for
the Treatment of the Insolvency of Natural Persons.
December 13-14 2012, World Bank, Washington D.C.
2. Legal Advisor, Superintendent Office,
Superintendency of Companies, Colombia.
a la Superintendencia de Sociedades a
presentar el sistema colombiano de
insolvencia de la persona natural no
comerciante recientemente expedido
en el Código General del Proceso,
dado el papel de la Superintendencia,
en el diseño del sistema.
La presentación de la
Superintendencia despertó el interés
de la comunidad jurídica especializada
en la insolvencia, por el futuro
funcionamiento y puesta en marcha
del sistema colombiano.
1. Introduction
The Colombian Legal system
stems from Civil Law and is codified.
From 2006 to June 2012 Colombia had
no natural person insolvency regime,
where such regulation is important for
the economic system and in particular
the need to re-establish the debtor´s
economic capability.
Law 1116 of 2006, regulates
insolvency proceedings in Colombia
and excludes non- merchants from its
application. Recently the Colombian
Constitutional Court declared nonmerchants
individual insolvency
procedures unconstitutional 3 .
However Colombia recently
approved the natural person
3. Colombian Constitutional Court, Judgment C-685
of 2011. Magistrate Humberto Sierra Porto, September
19/2011.
insolvency legislation in the General
Procedure Code, Law 1564 of 2012,
Third Section: Liquidation proceedings.
Three mechanisms were
established. The three mechanisms
include a negotiated alternative and
formal liquidation proceeding: the
negotiation of debts proceeding, the
validation of the private agreement
proceeding and the estate´s
liquidation proceeding.
The first two mechanisms have
a recovery condition, highlighting
negotiation and have a preventive
calling, due to the fact that liquidation
proceeds if they fail.
From the subjective point of
view, the regime applies to the
non-merchant individual, without
establishing any other condition for
its applicability other than the debtor’s
default.
The Colombian insolvency
system then makes a distinction
between business insolvency 4 and
the insolvency of natural persons,
called non-merchants, i.e. individual
insolvency 5 .
Nevertheless, in the context
of groups of companies, when the
individuals are part of the group or
4. Law 1116 of 2006.
5. Article 532 of the General Code of Procedure.