SANTO DOMINGO- President Luis Abinader issued Decree 18-23 last night, Thursday, approving the regulations for the electronic system of movable property guarantees, for the application of Law 45-20, approved in 2020.
The purpose of this regulation is to regulate the Electronic System of Movable Guarantees (SEGM) and establish the legal framework of the Movable Guarantees Regime, the Electronic System of Movable Guarantees, the execution processes related to these guarantees, as well as a unitary legal regime for the constitution, effectiveness, publicity, registration, priority, execution and everything related to them.
In its second article, the law defines that "Movable Guarantee in the legal system of the Dominican Republic shall be understood as all preferential rights that are constituted on movable property, such as pledge, universal pledge, assignment of rights in guarantee, pledge with dispossession and without dispossession or any other included under the unitary concept of movable guarantee, and therefore the rules of this law shall apply to it from its entry into force.".
The regulations issued by the Executive Branch contain the entire process, definitions of the terms used in the SEGM, and the steps that users must follow to register.
Article 11 establishes that the Directorate of Administration of the Electronic System of Movable Guarantees of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and MSMEs (MICM) will be the area directorate of that ministry, created in coordination with the Ministry of Public Administration (MAP), which will be in charge of the administration of the SEGM.
The SEGM database can be consulted free of charge to check whether or not a person or thing is registered. The search will be conducted through the system's electronic portal, in accordance with the procedures outlined in the manuals prepared for this purpose.
The regulation strengthens legal certainty for doing business in the country and will be highly beneficial for small and medium-sized enterprises, because it will boost credit directed to this sector that makes up the majority of the nation's economic production chain.
