A new public body for the defense of the financial client has been born. From the PP they call it an "administrative tome" while the Government defends its usefulness for consumers of banking, insurance and all kinds of financial products, who will soon have a "fast and free" tool for the attention of claims lower than 20,000 euros.
The new Independent Authority for the Defense of Financial Clients was approved yesterday in Congress and is now pending its passage through the Senate. It has not been an easy process because in the parliamentary journey it has undergone important changes that affect its financing and avoid a possible case of unconstitutionality. 48 amendments have been introduced and another 89 have been negotiated.
The new body may impose sanctions that will range, depending on their severity, between 500,000 euros and 2 million euros. The authority may also fine executives of financial institutions responsible for irregular conduct with up to one million euros.
The financial institutions will be in charge of paying for the body, although with an important novelty: if before the regulation could encourage customers to submit claims simply to harm the banks, now this distortion has ended to promote good practices in exchange. the sector.
The norm sent to Congress established a fixed rate of 250 euros for each claim, which the financial institution would have paid, whatever the result of the resolution. It supposed, in the opinion of the banks, a "perverse incentive" to claim.
However, yesterday a different mechanism was approved that penalizes defaulting banks. 40% of the agency's costs will be distributed based on the number of claims received by each entity and the remaining 60% proportionally to the cases ruled against each of them. In other words, a bank that gets along with its customers and does not receive resolutions against it will pay less than one that does.
The law went ahead with 186 votes in favor, 47 against coming mostly from Vox and 95 abstentions from the PP, critical of the law, but partly in agreement with the parliamentary tweaks. The Secretary of State for the Economy, Gonzalo García Andrés, recognized precisely this work, emphasizing that "the text has improved in the parliamentary process in fundamental aspects". The new authority, he said, is "definitive and very important."
Other novelties have to do with bad faith claims or the ability of banks to appeal decisions. Clients who report repeatedly to banks in a period of one year and without foundation may be penalized between 50 and 300 euros.
The norm also eliminates the risk of unconstitutionality in its passage through Congress by guaranteeing effective judicial protection. In its initial formulation, the authority's resolutions could not be appealed, but now banks dissatisfied with their content may go to court to open a contentious-administrative proceeding.
There are other modifications, such as special protection that goes beyond the elderly and that will benefit other groups such as immigrants or the disabled. When the claim does not have an economic content, the authority may impose compensation in favor of the client of between 100 and 2,000 euros. Basic bank accounts are also guaranteed to avoid financial exclusion.
This new defender of financial clients, including cryptocurrencies, will bring together tasks from the Bank of Spain, the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) and the General Directorate of Insurance and Pension Funds.
The banks have criticized the "giganticism" of this new authority, which they compare with the one that already works in the United Kingdom, considered inefficient by the entities. Its approval opened a front of disagreement with the Government that was added to the one generated by the new tax on banks and energy companies. By presenting the law in Congress, the Minister of Economy, Nadia Calviño, has already opened up to making changes. The Asufin consumer association positively valued the standard yesterday. Banking sources warn that it can become a new source of litigation
