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Presenting the second Consumer Markets Scoreboard Report, Commissioner Kuneva underlined that the financial crises are no excuse for ceasing to pay attention on retail banking. The report states that the retail banking sector – next to energy and transport – causes the most problems for consumers.
Retail conditions for customers and consumer rights need to be key elements of the sector overhaul, just as much as the requirement for prudent banking, she said.
Because we are dealing with a market that exhibits both very low switching rates and increasingly non transparent fees, Kuneva said. “On average, only 9% of users of current accounts changed banks. This must be read together with a seeming problem of comparability of offers as 34% of individuals found it fairly difficult to compare offers from suppliers”, she continued. “Some relevant information seems to be hidden from consumers”.
“In such a seemingly malfunctioning market, it is not surprising that both bank fees and interest rates are very surprisingly different among the Member States and in ways that are difficult to explain”, the Commissioner said. “For example, adjusted interest rates on consumer credit between 1 and 5 years vary between 0,21% in Sweden and 12,12% in Estonia.”
Press release on Consumer Scoreboard