What is cross-account balance clearing and how it is applied
04/09/2025
Bank customers have the right to always know what the balances of their accounts are and how entities can act with them. Therefore, they must incorporate in the contracts, among others, a clause that informs them of the possibility that the offsetting of balances is applied between products of the same entity.
Clearing between accounts consists of transferring money from one with a positive balance to another with a negative balance opened in the same entity. And for the bank to be able to apply the compensation, it must have been clearly agreed in the opening contract.
In other words, if you are the holder of several accounts in the same entity and you stay in red numbers in one of them, the bank is entitled to carry out a transfer and thus cover the overdraft.
This practice is common, but the ruleAbre en ventana nueva sets certain limits in the case of attachmentsAbre en ventana nueva of salaries and pensions in accounts. Although this limit does not affect compensation, it is considered a good banking practice that the entity, when clearing accounts, avoids passing the limit amount that is part of the salary or pension that the norm considers a vital minimum.
The same would apply to the Minimum Vital IncomeAbre en ventana nueva, since it seeks to guarantee a minimum level of income to people in a situation of economic vulnerability.
Therefore, as these are minimum and vital amounts to survival, the institution should not prioritise its own interest or right to offset debts to the detriment of the client’s interest.
“Disclaimer: Please note that this is a translation of the original in Spanish that has been obtained using eTranslation (the machine translation tool provided by the European Commission), with the intention of giving you a basic idea of the content in English until a human translation becomes available. The Banco de España accepts no liability whatsoever in connection with this translation.”
