The duty of information, transparency and liability of banks regarding the deposits of their clients: roman precedents

Abstract

The safeguarding of the interests of clients in their dealings with the banking sector is a highly topical subject. There are a number of valuable precedents in Roman commercial practice and in particular in financial activities. The intense efforts of the Praetor for example together with important interpretative contributions from jurisprudence sought to equip the Law with a series of provisions that protected the weaker party in a commercial relationship, such as the duty of information in relation to bank products with proper advertising of the praepositio institoria, together with the duty of the banks to keep correct, transparent accounts imposed by the edicto de rationibus argentariis edendis. There was also the in solidum liability of the banker in the event of bankruptcy or breach of general principles of fairness and good faith. The reason on which all these principles are based is in the notion that argentariam facere was a public service..