Financial institutions returned 22 million euros to banking customers in 2024, following Banco de Portugal inspection actions, of which 15.5 million euros were in a single case.
“As a result of the supervision measures adopted, the institutions returned about 22 million euros to banking customers, related to improperly charged commissions and interest,” says the released today, and for last year.
It is Value is divided into two types of improper collection: a improper interest collection, which represented 18.5 million eurosand improper collection of prohibited or limited committees, which totaled 3.5 million euros.
One bank had to return more than 15 million
A large slice It was due to a case of inclusion of a clause that determined the improper loss of bonus of the value of the spread in credit contracts in the event of arrears.
A institution concerned, unidentified, had to return 15.5 million euros to customers which were improperly charged for the aggravation of the spread in more than a year.
Without these 15.5 million euros of euros, The institutions returned 6.49 million euros, a value that is still below 8.3 million euros by 2023.
BDP numbers
O Bank Supervisor issued 2,582 warnings, recommendations and specific determinations in cases of correction of irregularities and sanctioning with 127 institutions, highlighting the weight of bank deposits (892), housing and mortgage credit (635) and consumer credit (443) (443).
BDP also advanced with 58 Infringement Processes with 23 institutionscom as Main infractions to be related to payment services (20), consumer credit (18) and bank deposits (14).
Complaints fell
Regarding the number of complaints from bank clients fell 16% compared to 2023having the regulator received 22,542 complaintsa Most was intended for bank deposits (32%), followed by credit to consumers (25%), housing and mortgage credit (13%) and payment cards (12%).
Between AS more claimed institutions in the field of deposits to the order were the Bao Europa (0.96 complaints per thousand deposit accounts to the Order), Activobank (0.80) and the branch of Abanca in Portugal (0.73), against an average of the system of 0.37 complaints per thousand accounts of this type.
In the same relationship, the complaints received in the Housing Credit related to Banco CTT (8.09) and the branch of Abanca in Portugal (3.52), above the average system of 1.5 complaints per 1,000 credit contracts to housing.
In the case of consumer creditthe complaints received by the branches in Portugal de Y stand outOUnited (4.61), CA Auto Bank (2.82) and RCI Banque (1.84), as well as the universe (1.79), against an average of the system of 0.44 complaints per thousand contracts.
In the analysis year, the number of complaints from bank clients completed advanced 1.1%to 24,975 complaints. Of these, 12% were closed with irregularities, being 3.96% related to consumer credit, 3.80% to payment services, 2.11% with housing and mortgage credit and 1.75% with bank deposits.
The BDP issued 355 warnings, recommendations, and specific determinations to 16 entities and 39 offenses with 19 financial institutions.
In 2024, the BDP analyzed 17,162 advertising supports of financial institutions, 5% more than in 2023, and led 399 to be changed.
Already with the 5,893 credit intermediaries registered in late 2024, the BDP analyzed 102 advertising supports, made inspection actions with 298 and received 61 complaints, having detected irregularities in, respectively, 71, 280 and 4.
As a whole, they were 62 Specific Warnings and Determinations with 61 Entities and Initiates 419 Infringement Processes in 417 Credit Intermediates.
The main matters claimed by customers about credit institutions in 2024 concerned the duty of customer assistance (32.7%), the duty of conduct and diligence (30.8%) and the provision of pre-contractual information (21.1%).
