Last year, Slovakia’s bank ombudsman handled 300 motions and complaints from bank clients.
Of the 300, 273 were new and 27 were continued from 2007. By the end of 2008, 254 cases were closed, the SITA newswire wrote. Following examination of the cases, 48 percent of complaints were rejected. No fault on the part of the banks was proven in a further 27 percent of cases, 16 percent ended in favour of the client and in eight percent of cases the client’s motion was postponed and the proceedings halted. In one percent of the cases, clients were advised to turn to a court or to law enforcement authorities.
A large proportion of complaints, 36 percent, concerned objections to a bank’s procedure in evaluating applications for a mortgage or a consumer loan. The share of complaints concerning investment services grew from 12 percent in 2007 to 18 percent last year. The share of motions related to payments and operations with payment cards amounted to eighteen percent.
Bank ombudsman Eva Černá stated that clients’ biggest problem is that they do not read their contracts thoroughly, and thus do not know their rights and duties resulting from their contractual relations with a bank. The bank ombudsman started operating on September 1, 2007, in line with stipulations of the Ethical Code on Protection of Consumer Rights and Procedures of the Bank Ombudsman upon Dealing with Consumers’ Motions. SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
