The Bank of Spain has joined, at least in part, the thesis of the banks that the new Authority for the Defense of Financial Clients will cause an avalanche of complaints due to the appearance of a perverse incentive to denounce. For each file that reaches the defender, regardless of the direction of its resolution, the bank must pay 250 euros to finance the body, so that, in the opinion of the entities, clients will have an automatic way to cause damage.
In his appearance before the commission of the Congress of Deputies that is processing the bill for the creation of the new customer ombudsman, the Governor of the Bank of Spain, Pablo Hernández de Cos, has criticized the financing system "consisting of a fee for the amount of 250 euros, regardless of the direction in which the new authority pronounces".
This criterion could "encourage banks to resolve cases amicably" when the amount is less than 250 euros. "It could cause any dispute for a lower amount to be accepted by the entity regardless of its content, which could ultimately lead to an increase in conflicts," he said. De Cos recalled that the Council of State has also ruled on this "lack of proportionality".
The novelty is that the governor of the Bank of Spain has offered a concrete solution. In his opinion, the financing system of the financial customer ombudsman could be changed "by another in which the rates are paid by the banks based on the number of contrary resolutions."
The president of the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV), Rodrigo Buenaventura, appeared on Tuesday before the same commission, in his case to make more subtle criticisms, such as the lack of homogeneity in the scope of action of the new authority, which it will respond not only to complaints from bank customers, but also from insurers and securities of all kinds, including cryptocurrencies.
The supervisor has only raised technical reluctance to the project, which involves preventing the advisory committee of the new customer ombudsman from overlapping with an already existing body in the CNMV with similar functions. He has also requested that the doctrine be unified in the law to avoid dysfunctions.
For banks, the incentive to complain is the main problem for the new customer ombudsman, whose resolutions will be binding when the penalty is less than 20,000 euros. According to his calculations, currently 60% of the complaints filed end up being dismissed.
The Government calculates that the annual claims will be around 100,000, which results in a cost of 25 million euros. The banks consider that the incentive will multiply this figure and criticize not so much the cost, which is insignificant for the banking system, but rather the gigantism that it can generate in the Administration.
