Bank deadlines on a fraud claim

Translated from the Spanish original. If there is any discrepancy between the two versions, the Spanish text prevails. Read the original in Spanish.

Five weeks ago you filed a claim over some transfers you did not make. You have the receipt code, the copy of your complaint to the OIJ, and no answer. How much longer do you have to wait? Law 10889 (Ley 10889), in force since April 22, 2026, sets precise deadlines for your bank or financial institution, and delay costs the institution money.

How long does the institution have to decide?

First, a clarification: calendar days (días naturales) are all days on the calendar, including weekends and holidays; business days (días hábiles) exclude Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. The law uses both.

You have thirty calendar days from the events to file a claim. From the moment you file, the institution has thirty calendar days to investigate and decide whether the claim is valid. It may extend that period only once, by up to ten additional business days, but it must notify you three days before the original deadline expires (Article 3).

The starting point is recorded: upon receiving the claim, the institution must immediately give you a receipt code showing the date and time (Article 4).

What happens if the institution is late?

If it decides after the deadline, you are entitled to compensation equal to one base salary (salario base), which is the monthly salary of the Clerk 1 (Oficinista 1) position in the National Budget Act (Ley de Presupuesto Ordinario de la República); the Supreme Court publishes its changes in the official gazette La Gaceta (Law 7337, Article 2). The institution must credit it to your account within a maximum of ten calendar days from the breach, and it must pay it even if your claim is ultimately found invalid (Article 5 of the law and Article 8 of Acuerdo SUGEF 5-26, the regulation in force since September 19, 2026). It is compensation for the delay, not the return of the stolen money.

If one hundred twenty calendar days pass from the claim without a decision, the institution loses the ability to decide whether the claim is valid, what the law calls preclusion (preclusión). It must return the funds to you within a maximum of ten calendar days. It may later sue you to recover what it paid, but in the meantime the money goes back into your account (Article 5). The General Superintendency of Financial Entities (Superintendencia General de Entidades Financieras, SUGEF) watches that limit: according to Annex 1 of the regulation, when an institution sends it a denial, it must include the claim with its date, so SUGEF can verify that it was decided within the one hundred twenty days.

In addition, an institution that fails to meet the obligations of the law faces a sanctions proceeding before SUGEF (Article 14 of the law and Article 155 of the Organic Law of the Central Bank, Ley Orgánica del Banco Central, Law 7558).

What if the amount taken is small?

Each institution must set in its internal policies, based on a cost-benefit analysis, an amount below which it refunds what was taken without a detailed analysis of the case (Article 13 of the law and Article 11 of the regulation). Annex 1 states it clearly: claims below that threshold are granted without the investigation procedure, and only those above it that are denied reach SUGEF.

The law does not set that amount: each institution defines its own, and neither of the two rules expressly requires it to publish it. Nor does it establish a special deadline for these refunds, so, in our view, the same thirty days to decide and ten days to credit apply.

When should the money arrive if the claim is granted?

If the institution grants the claim, it must credit the funds to your account within a maximum of ten calendar days from notifying you of the decision and, when appropriate, reopen the account. In that same act, it must eliminate the interest and charges it applied as a result of the fraud and refund what it already deducted for that reason, with interest (Article 3).

If the institution denies the claim, SUGEF has ten business days to validate that decision and, if it does not ratify it, the institution has another ten business days to return the funds (Article 3; we explain this in this article).

The law also ordered that claims pending when it took effect be decided under these procedures and deadlines (Transitional Provision III).

Practical recommendations

Write down the dates from day one. The date of the events, the date on the receipt code, and the date of each communication from the institution.
Count each deadline correctly. Check whether it is in calendar or business days, and whether you were notified of the extension in time.
Claim the compensation in writing if the institution did not decide on time and did not credit it within the following ten calendar days.
If one hundred twenty days pass with no answer, demand the return of the funds under Article 5 of the law.
Ask what threshold your institution applies for refunds without investigation.
Check your account statement after the refund: the charges and interest caused by the fraud must also disappear.

Need help?

At Murillo y Guzmán we can review your case, calculate the deadlines, and claim from your institution what you are owed. Book a consultation.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice for any specific case. To discuss your situation, book a consultation.

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