Creditor

The legal term creditor is a loan translation of the Italian creditore, which is derived from the Latin credere 'to believe'. Accordingly, a creditor 'believes' his debtor that the latter will perform the debt (owed service).

In the law of obligations, a creditor is anyone who can demand performance from another, the debtor (Section 241 (1) sentence 1 BGB). The legal relationship between creditor and debtor is referred to as the debt relationship. In order to enforce this, they assert a claim.

In compulsory enforcement, the (enforcement) creditor is the person who enforces an enforceable title. (Enforcement) debtor is the party against whom enforcement is sought under the enforceable title.

In Swiss linguistic usage, the term "creditor" in a debt enforcement action only has the meaning 'debtor'. In other words, the creditor is "the person whose claim is being enforced, i.e. in whose favour the debt enforcement proceedings are to be conducted".

In insolvency proceedings the creditors represent their interests jointly. The main body is the so-called creditors' meeting, section 74 InsO. The creditors' assembly makes the main decisions in the insolvency proceedings. In addition, a creditors' committee may be appointed by the creditors' assembly to support and supervise the insolvency administrator in the performance of his duties, section 69 InsO.

The creditor is often equated with the beneficial owner. Although creditor status and beneficial ownership can often coincide in one person, it is quite possible for the two to be different.

There are several creditor majorities:

• Partial creditorship: All creditors, independently of each other, have the possibility to claim a part of the performance. If there is no contractual provision, all creditors receive the same share. The prerequisite for a partial creditor relationship is that the performance owed is divisible (the value of the performance may not be reduced by the division).
• Joint and several creditor: Here the claim is not divided, so the creditor can demand the entire performance.
• Joint creditors: In this case, the debtor must pay all joint creditors jointly. If only one creditor is satisfied, the claim is not extinguished.

When determining the rights of the parties involved in the insolvency plan, groups shall be formed InsO

In the case of an insolvency plan, the so-called groups of creditors must be formed in accordance with section 222 InsO. These have different rights depending, among other things, on whether they are entitled to separate satisfaction and the ranking of their insolvency claim.

See also

• Vendor