The Polish Financial Supervision Authority examined how banks settle accounts with customers for the reimbursement of commission on previously repaid consumer loans. It turns out that almost each of the surveyed banks had funds in their technical accounts that were waiting for customers to collect them.
- It mainly concerns customers who took out a loan from a bank other than their parent bank and then did not renew any product in it
- Most banks make one attempt to contact the customer who is owed a refund
- The scale of the phenomenon may be large, but the amounts to be reimbursed themselves – not necessarily
- More such information can be found on the Onet.pl home page
The Polish Financial Supervision Authority examined how banks settle commission payments with clients on prematurely repaid consumer loans. The obligation of such settlement was imposed on the banks by the Consumer Credit Act, according to which the customer should receive a refund of such part of the commission that proportionally falls on the period from the early repayment to the repayment date, resulting from the contract.
“Almost all the banks examined show the amounts of overpayments in the bank’s technical accounts, which are waiting to be distributed by customers,” the KNF wrote in reply to the questions sent to it by PAP.
The Polish Financial Supervision Authority did not provide information on the total amount of commission awaiting customers. It is also not known how many customers should receive a part of the commission refund. The Polish Bank Association also does not have such information.
Considering how many banks grant consumer loans, there will always be a few who will forget about the possibility of picking up a commission. With large banks providing millions of loans, there may be thousands of such people. And you have to remember that these are not large amounts. It can sometimes be a few zlotys to pick up
– said Norbert Jeziolowicz, director of the Polish Banks Association.
According to the information from the Polish Financial Supervision Authority, these are mainly customers who took out a loan from a bank other than their parent bank and who – after paying off the liability – did not renew any other product. In such situations, banks leave the funds on the technical account, used to service the account, and then try to contact the customer.
“It has been established that banks are making efforts to inform the customer who does not have a payment account with the lender about the calculated amount of overpayment resulting from the settlement of the consumer loan in connection with the early full repayment. Entities that use postal money orders to settle the loans were identified. However, most of the surveyed banks adopted solutions consisting in a one-time attempt to contact the customer in the form of a regular letter addressed to the last address known to the bank or an SMS “ – wrote in response to PAP’s questions.
According to Jeziolowicz, reaching such a client is often not easy.
– It often turns out that the customer’s address of the bank is out of date, that the customer has changed the phone number or e-mail address or, for example, went abroad – said Norbert Jeziolowicz.
Missed money – what happens to it?
The Polish Financial Supervision Authority issued a position on the settlement of commissions on consumer loans, in which it appealed to financial institutions to create their own solutions that “will effectively eliminate the risk of not informing the borrower about the funds due to him due to the settlement of early full repayment of the loan and the risk of non-return of funds due to the borrower. this title within the time limit provided for in the Consumer Credit Act “. However, she did not indicate any of her proposals.
It is difficult to find a way to eliminate such a risk. We cannot require the client to send us his data after the end of the contract, because this could even end up recognizing such provisions as an abusive clause. Unfortunately, when recovering overpaid commission, customer activity is necessary, and this is the biggest problem. The customers would simply have to hear that it is possible
– said Norbert Jeziolowicz from the Polish Banks Association.
He added that such unclaimed money is usually kept in technical accounts for several years, eg for 10. Then it is deposited into the bank’s reserve capital.
– Except that if the client reports after this time, he will get a refund anyway – added Jeziolowicz.
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