By Yasmine EDDAM
5 April 2025
Guarantees are the most widely used personal surety in banking and commercial practice. Its effectiveness is based on its apparent simplicity: one person undertakes to pay the debt of another in the event of default. Order no. 2021-1192 of 15 September 2021 completely rewrites the law on sureties. This reform puts an end to the scattering of texts between the Civil Code, the Consumer Code and the Monetary and Financial Code. It also strengthens the protection of sureties while preserving the effectiveness of this guarantee, thus establishing a new balance between protection and effectiveness. A clearer definition and a unified system The new definition of surety appears in article 2288 of the Civil Code: "Surety is a contract by which a guarantor undertakes to pay a creditor's debt in the event of the debtor's default". This more direct wording clearly asserts the contractual nature of suretyship. The text specifies...
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