The Minister for Economic Affairs, Nadia Calviño, has shown herself willing to review the financing mechanism of the future Financial Client Defense Authority, which includes a fee of 250 euros per complaint charged to the banks regardless of the direction of the resolution. Banks see this measure as a perverse incentive that can trigger claims.
"The financial system and society are mature enough to prevent abuse, but throughout the parliamentary process we will be able to address this issue and improve the bill if necessary," Calviño said in Congress, where the amendments to all of ERC and Vox against the law creating the new body.
"In the question of financing, we are always open to improvements in the articulation of the law", insisted the minister. In the bill, the fee is articulated as an amount per claim that must be paid when the claim is admitted for processing. The figure of 250 euros, as Calviño indicated, is "an estimate" based on the current number of claims and the expected administrative costs.
The minister defended the "agile and efficient" nature of the new authority, which "does not eliminate the mechanisms available to financial clients, but reinforces them with a free response" and goes "beyond current consumption models." She also denied, in response to Vox, that the rule limits judicial protection or is unconstitutional.
The bill will continue its parliamentary process after Congress rejected the entire amendment presented by Vox and ERC withdrew its own at the last minute, after a negotiation with the PSOE.
ERC criticized the creation of a new "centralized" body that does not issue binding resolutions and that, in its opinion, is not capable of ending "the evident defenselessness of the financial client before the entities", as explained by the deputy in charge of the amendment, Joan Capdevila . The party's reluctance, he said, has more to do "with what than with how." "Enough of trusting the bank and their swearing by 'snoopy,'" he added.
Capdevila himself has explained to La Vanguardia that, after the debate and the result of a negotiation with the PSOE, ERC has decided to withdraw the amendment in its entirety with the intention of modifying the text through partial amendments, of which it will present around thirty, for the most part directed at aspects such as the protection of the elderly, services on account of basic payments and improvement of customer treatment.
"Other consumption and competition mechanisms of the autonomous communities are being replaced. We can see how to take advantage of the knowledge and experience in these areas of consumption", has been the minister's response to criticism regarding the centralist nature of the future body .
In the parliamentary debate, the PSOE deputy Pedro Casares Hontañón has already announced that "intensive work was being done with ERC on important aspects of the regulation" in order to have the amendment withdrawn in its entirety, as has ended up happening.
