On March 19, the Consumer Defense Committee welcomed representatives from the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Superintendency of Banking (SBS) and the National Institute for the Defense of Competition (Indecopi) to discuss a bill seeking to regulate company mergers and acquisitions. The SBS proposed to include in the ruling the possibility that, when it comes to mergers in the financial system, the favorable opinion of the SBS is a must for the operation to go ahead. The committee could rule on the bill at the beginning of April.

Currently, the ruling that is being discussed indicates that when corporate mergers involve companies that concentrate more than 40% of the relevant market in which they are going to operate, they must be reviewed by Indecopi. However, Ivo Gagliuffi, president of Indecopi, pointed out that the threshold of 40% proposed “is qualitative and does not respond to objective measurements that should be considered in these cases”. In this sense, he considered that this condition should be eliminated from the bill. In addition, he indicated that the norm would come into force a year after its approval, since Indecopi “would need to train personnel and devise regulations and guidelines”.

Meanwhile, Javier Poggi, of the SBS, said the bill should include the possibility that, in extraordinary cases that call for emergency operations for the financial system, the Superintendency have an exclusive say on mergers and acquisitions. Also, he requested that in the case of ordinary mergers in the financial system both the favorable opinion of Indecopi and the SBS be required for the operation to be completed.

According to information from the committee, the bill, which has already been ruled on by the Economy Committee, is set to be ruled on by the Consumer Protection office at the beginning of April. After that it would be ready to be debated on the floor of Congress.