Revolving credit and invalidity of the contract

The validity of a contract opening a revolving line of credit that results from an agreement promoted and signed by a financial agent who is not listed in the appropriate register is questionable. The prevailing view, embraced by the Court of Cassation, asserts the contract’s nullity for contravention of a mandatory rule (art. 1418, para. 1, Civil Code). The essay subjects that solution to critical examination and advances a contrary proposition: the contract concluded between a bank and a client through the activity of an unauthorized agent is voidable; if the client is a consumer, the relative nullity operates to the consumer’s advantage, in light of the purpose of the infringed rule. The performances rendered must be returned once the contract is deprived of its effects. Since, however, under the ratione temporis regime applicable, an unregistered agent may carry out activity when it consists in the “distribution of payment cards,” that person should be regarded as authorized: the revolving credit card is to be classified among payment cards