Comprehensive guarantee templates
The comprehensive guarantee can be national or EU-wide. An EU-wide guarantee is provided as a bank guarantee, while national guarantees have more guarantee options. Customs determines the acceptable type of guarantee and guarantee documents, accepts the guarantor, and communicates with the customer before the guarantee is provided.
The guarantee document must conform to the template, and it can be drafted in Finnish or Swedish. In the guarantee, the guarantor must provide an address for service in each country of validity. The approval of a foreign bank as a guarantor must be verified by Customs' Tax Collection before the guarantee is provided. Contact Customs Information Service. The national comprehensive guarantee is only valid in Finland.
An EU-wide guarantee may be used in more than one Member State, and for placing goods under the Union transit procedure. The transit guarantee must be valid throughout the entire EU territory and in optional agreement countries (the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Ukraine, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, North Macedonia, Türkiye, Serbia, Andorra and San Marino). EU-wide guarantees are provided as bank guarantees in Finland. Only bank guarantees are accepted as comprehensive guarantees for transit.
What types of guarantees does Customs accept as a comprehensive guarantee?
For example, the following types of guarantees or their combinations can be accepted as guarantees:
- bank guarantee/suretyship insurance
- pledge of a bank account
Mortgages of businesses, vessels, cars and equipment or money deposits into Customs’ accounts, are not accepted as a comprehensive guarantee.
Customs always determines the acceptable type of guarantee and guarantee documents, and communicates with the customer before the guarantee is provided.
A national comprehensive guarantee can be provided as a bank account pledge.
In connection with a bank account pledge
- the bank submits a pledge notification and a certificate of waiver to Customs
- the customer submits the general pledge agreement as well as the decision of the deciding body of the company to issue the pledge, for example the minutes of the board meeting (the board’s decision on the pledge)
Documents relating to the bank account pledge must be provided exactly in accordance with Customs’ templates either in Finnish or in Swedish. The account to be pledged must be in a Finnish bank or in a Finnish branch office of a bank established in the EU or EEA.
Templates for account pledges:
- Account pledge template for the customer (in Finnish)
- Account pledge template for the bank (in Finnish)
Bank guarantees provided to Customs must conform exactly to the guarantee templates. Texts may not be changed, nor may anything be added to them. The guarantee templates are based on mandatory EU legislation. A bank, insurance institution or other guarantor approved by Customs, submits a guarantee to Customs that conforms to the template.
Bank guarantee templates:
To which address should the guarantee be sent?
The guarantee can be sent to Tulli, Vakuustoimipaikka, PL 261, 65101 Vaasa.
Validity of the comprehensive guarantee
The guarantee must be provided as valid until further notice.
The notice period for the bank guarantee and the suretyship insurance is short, only 16 days. That way, the bank can very quickly limit its liability if needed.
The notice period for an account pledge is six months.
The guarantee must be provided in Finnish or Swedish
Guarantee templates are available in the official languages of Finland, i.e. in Finnish and Swedish, and the guarantee must be provided in these languages. Versions in other languages will not be accepted.
An unofficial English version of the guarantee text is available from Customs’ Tax Collection. Contact Customs’ Information Service. The English version can be used as a guide if needed, for example, when an international group of companies decide to provide a guarantee to Customs. In the event of a conflict, the Finnish or Swedish version is always determinative and the bank or customer company cannot rely on the English version.
The guarantee must include an address for service in each country of validity
In the guarantees, the guarantor must provide an address of service for each country of validity.
A claim for payment involving an EU-wide guarantee can be sent directly to the bank from EU countries where the guarantee is valid. In transit guarantees, a claim for payment can also come from non-EU countries that are parties to the transit convention if the guarantee is valid in them. Therefore, the guarantee must include addresses for service for each Member State where claims are made. The office of guarantee mentioned in the template refers to a customs office in an EU country or any other equivalent authority competent to deal with matters relating to the guarantee. In Finland, the office of guarantee is Finnish Customs, more specifically the Customs Authorisation Centre.
In terms of an EU-wide guarantee, it must be noted that the guarantor accepts the jurisdiction of the courts in the regions where their addresses of service are located. Finnish law is applied only when an address for service in Finland is used for a claim for payment, notice, formality, procedure or some other notification.
An EU-wide guarantee that is provided becomes valid from the date it is accepted by Customs. In practice, Customs sends the bank a scanned copy of the guarantee with a mark of approval by secure email.
Guarantees are suretyships
Guarantees are suretyships based on the maturity of the principal debt. This is not a ‘first demand’ guarantee, i.e. a guarantee payable immediately on demand, where the beneficiary is not required to provide a statement of outstanding claims. The 30-day requirement mentioned in the guarantee templates does not make the guarantee a ‘first demand’ guarantee; rather the main purpose of the payment period is to prevent unjustified delays in payments. The Member States must account for the payments relating to the traditional own resources of the European Union, i.e. customs duties, to the Commission without delay. In accordance with the guarantee text, Customs may extend the period of payment, and the bank may deny its claim for payment. If the parties do not reach a mutual understanding on the claim for payment, the process will move forward as litigation.
In the guarantee templates, the limitation of liability is divided into two different situations:
I. A situation where Customs has issued a claim for payment to the bank (second paragraph of the national guarantee template)
When Customs issues a claim for payment, the bank must issue a limitation of liability to Customs within 30 days of the receipt of the claim for payment.
Customs always interprets the limitation of liability as a cancellation of the entire bank guarantee, unless the bank specifically states that the limitation of liability concerns only sums already paid.
After the first claim for payment, the bank may limit its liability to the maximum amount of the guarantee. However, the beneficiary, i.e. Customs, can issue several claims for payment up to the maximum guarantee amount if the debts were incurred before the cancellation took effect, and they are covered by the guarantee. Every standard payment reduces the guarantee sum, given that there is a limitation of liability. It is important for the bank to issue a limitation of liability immediately after the first claim for payment.
Example
The maximum amount referred to in the guarantee document is 50 000 euros. On 15 January, the guarantor receives the first claim for payment of 40 000 euros and pays that sum. The guarantor can limit their liability to the remaining 10 000 euros for all customs transactions that have started before 14 February. However, the guarantor will again be liable to pay the requested sum up to 50 000 euros if the second claim for payment involves a customs transaction that started before 14 February or after that date, unless the guarantor has cancelled the guarantee.
II. A situation where a limitation of liability is issued without a claim for payment from Customs, i.e. a so-called general period of notice (third paragraph of the national guarantee template)
The bank can issue a notification on the limitation of liability, which will enter into force 16 days after the date when Customs received the notification from the guarantor. This applies to cases where Customs has not issued a claim for payment to the bank. In such situations, the bank is not responsible for any debt incurred after the entry into force of the limitation of liability.