Some major banks in Slovakia are allegedly disobeying the law by making clients pay fees linked to the early pay-out of their mortgages, Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ) MP Miroslav Beblavý said at a briefing on Thursday, August 16, stating that he has received complaints from a number of people.
"These fees are sometimes in packaged form, and sometimes they reach more than €100," Beblavý, whose party while in the government last term abolished this practice, told the TASR newswire.
According to him, cases of banks charging clients who wanted to repay their mortgage early were reported in Prešov, Nitra, Bratislava and Košice. The fees were not defined directly as fees for early repayment (because these are forbidden by the law), but as charges for adjustments in the contract conditions, issuing of special applications, non-standard documents and the like. Beblavý refused to state the names of the financial houses allegedly carrying out these practices, arguing that these suspicions have not yet been verified. So as to resolve the situation, Beblavý sent a letter to the Finance Ministry as well as the Slovak central bank (NBS) asking the institutions to investigate the matter and find out whether the accusations are true. "If they do, [I asked them to] fine the banks – but, more importantly, to ensure it doesn't happen in the future," said Beblavý.
(Source: TASR)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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