You are in battle along with your financial institution since you imagine that it has inflicted extreme charges on you following a financial institution overdraft regardless of your precarious state of affairs. You are upset along with your advisor, then with the banking community complaints division. Without impact, you then have one possibility: enter a mediator to attempt to settle the dispute. Will or not it’s fully impartial or will it favor the pursuits of your financial institution? The doubt exists, in the eyes of the UFC-What to decide on.
The shopper affiliation denounces a “lack of impartiality” on the half of some bank mediators. “Some are appointed directly by the banks. How can the individual have confidence? Doesn’t the mediator have an interest in protecting the banking network in order to hope to continue his relationship with him in the future? »Asks Matthieu Robin, project manager at the UFC. The association is based on a report from the Financial Sector Advisory Committee (CCSF), made public this Thursday and which highlights the strengths and weaknesses of banking mediation.
“Mediators perform their mission with complete impartiality and their independence is monitored by the Consumer Mediation Assessment and Control Commission (CECMC). This does not exclude also setting rules of ethics and good governance. We must facilitate access to the mediator for consumers ”, confides Corinne Drommer, president of the CCSF. A parliamentary mission charged by the Prime Minister to look at the means of reinforcing its “utility” should additionally submit its conclusions by July 31.
84% of requests deemed “inadmissible”
There are three varieties of banking mediation in France. One is public, offered by the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) with regards to a battle associated to the inventory market. There is that of knowledgeable group, established by the mediator chosen by the French Banking Federation (FBF), which represents all the banks. The final, generally known as “business mediation”, is non-public. Some networks, though members of the FBF, select to dispense with the widespread mediator to nominate their very own conciliator. This is the case, for instance, of Société Générale, certain regional banks of Crédit Agricole, HSBC, Crédit du Nord and even Banques Populaires.
“We consider that the various mediation systems allow clients to obtain an independent, impartial and fair review of their file,” says Banques Populaires. For instance, in 2020, regarding the opinions delivered by the mediator of the National Federation of Banques Populaires, the charges of favorable or partially favorable opinions to clients are larger than these noticed compared with different mediation programs in the banking sector. “
According to calculations by the UFC-Que Choisir, 84% of requests are deemed “inadmissible” in the context of company mediation, against 62% for that of the professional organization and 51% for public mediation of the ‘AMF. “Sometimes the mediator asks for the bank’s authorization to take over a case, that’s not possible! thunders Matthieu Robin. We want a complete overhaul of banking mediation with a single public mediator, common to all banking networks, for complete independence. “
This mannequin already exists in the insurance coverage sector the place the mediator is collegially chosen by representatives of the corporations, the CCSF and two exterior professionals. It is, for the second, excluded by the banking sector. On the different hand, all the events (customers, CCSF and banks) specifically have famous the institution of an “emptiness period”, the truth {that a} financial institution doesn’t have the proper to nominate a mediator if this one labored there X time inside the community. Its period, of two, three or 5 years, stays to be outlined. “The consensus found makes it possible to underline that mediation brings together actors of good will who have a common interest in finding a favorable outcome”, one reacts to the FBF.
