The number of claims from the Bank of Spain will reach its historical high of 60,000 in 2024 and will call into question the viability of the system.

Better presented, with more information and graphics, the Bank of Spain Complaints Report 2023 is a key document for understanding the relationship of financial consumers with banking institutions. However, this grievance system is ineffective and does not provide redress for the harm caused to customers. These are relationships that are not always friendly, as emphasized a large number of claims in 2023.

Fernando Sunsunegui He is one of the first lawyers in the field of financial law in our country. He is the author of one of the reference guides on the transposition of community directives in Spain. “This is a sector that is plagued by abuses and consumer rights. This has led to millions of disputes. Nowadays, the relationship between the bank and the client in many cases is of a conflictual nature, which is undesirable,” says Zunzunegi.

For the past thirty-five years he has trained new lawyers in this complex and overly regulated practice, which covers both national and European rules, first at the Autonomous University and then at the Carlos III University. Recently, lawyer and university professor Paloma Corbal, member of the firm Zunzunegui Abogados, defended her doctorate.

At the Finance and Health Foundation (Finsalud), of which he is a founding partner and president, Zunzunegui is concerned about good banking practices. This year, the foundation’s annual conference will examine the issue of bank fraud, a practice in which financial consumers are not adequately protected.

In conversation with Economist and lawyerthis lawyer analyzes the most relevant data from this year’s Bank of Spain report. In his speech, he already warns that during 2024 we will reach historical figures: “They say that In August 2024, there are already 45,000 applications, and they are expected to reach 60,000.. This is a historical maximum, almost double last year’s level. Complaints are mainly related to mortgages and payment services, accounts and cards, which account for the majority of these complaints,” he predicts.

The decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) to waive the statute of limitations on mortgage costs has opened up the possibility for millions of bank customers who signed a mortgage to apply to legal entities in court to reimburse them for registration costs incurred by the consumer. traditionally born. This led to the Spanish banking regulator registering 40,000 requests for correction until June.

According to the 2023 Claims Report released this Wednesday, 60% of complaints are motivated by mortgage loans. However, the institution headed by José Luis Escrivá is not competent to hear these cases, so the cases are rejected ex officio. 61% of the total number of claims were rejected.

Absence of a defense body

In these circumstances, he believes the solution is to unlock the Financial Customer Protection Authority. “Customer economic satisfaction is low relative to the volume of payments moved by financial institutions. Only a little over 4 million euros are returned to clients. In 2022, this figure was 6.5 million and then dropped to four, which is surprising as it has fallen by 30% in an environment where bank fraud can amount to hundreds of millions of euros stolen from customers,” he said.

The launch of this organization is believed to help improve the current situation. In this sense, he explains that “The authorities will apply the law because the Bank of Spain declares that it applies the rules of good practice.” This will allow more claims to be accepted and, above all, will be more efficient since its reports will be binding, since these decisions will be binding for up to 20,000 euros. The system with this new figure will be more efficient and will compensate for the damage caused to the client. At the same time, it will create greater discipline in the banking sector when it comes to implementing its regulations.

It also emphasizes that “a significant proportion of claims, 61%, are not accepted for processing, and a significant portion of these are related to fraud, in which the customer somehow admits that their passwords have been used and that they have gained access to your account. This means that most banking scams, especially those involving digital payments, are not supported. Banks require reporting to the police, which requires filling out a form indicating that a third party has committed fraud. This determines that the Bank of Spain does not accept them.

At the end of the day, remember that “instead of processing this claim and analyzing the bank’s liability, the remedy is to go to the police and that typical complaint where it is clear that the customer has been defrauded by a third party. This protects the bank, which leaves the only option for the consumer to go to court to try to get back their money, which is now in other hands.

Another fact that this expert highlights is that “More than 20% of positive feedback from the Bank of Spain to the client is not taken into account by banking institutions. This is a very high percentage. This means that one in five positive reports to a client are not followed up by those involved.

In the end, the financial compensation for all these incidents is insignificant compared to the amount of money complained of. They amount to just over 4,376,811 euros, emphasizes the organization, which indicates that the processing and resolution period has been reduced by 16 calendar days, to 53, with 95.5% of complaints coming from residents of the European Union.

The system is not working well

This data confirms that the system never worked well. “In any case, many clients who do not find a favorable solution from the Customer Service (CAS) of financial institutions turn to the Bank of Spain in search of a favorable solution. Although we have already seen that one in five orders may be invalid or not taken into account by the banking institution, this is a document that can be filed in court to support our arguments against the financial institution,” he notes.

According to this lawyer, “the current system of the Bank of Spain is ineffective because it does not resolve the contentious relationships that exist between banks and clients, as evidenced by the fact that most claims are mortgages. Let us recall that in 2014 the Law on Credit Agreements for Real Estate was adopted, which was supposed to solve everything, increase transparency and reduce claims to almost a minimum. However, we are at the top of the claims.

In his opinion, “it is obvious that banks do not comply with the law on mortgage lending and the problems that customers have with these loans are not being resolved.” The same goes for credit cards. As has been demonstrated over the years, the system remains flawed. The memory collects data, but there is no effective protection for the bank client.

That’s why, believes that the solution is to approve the Office for the Protection of Financial Customersapproval that is “frozen in Congress”; The deadline for amendments has been extended thirteen times, and consideration of the bill has been suspended. “We must remember that in the previous legislature this issue was passed by a majority vote in the Senate.”

However, parliament was dissolved. “Economy Minister Carlos Bodi has repeatedly indicated that this new figure is necessary to protect the financial client, but at the moment the bill is blocked in Congress itself,” he recalls.

Change current system

From his point of view, the current system of the Bank of Spain does not go further. “It is unacceptable that 61% of complaints received by the regulator are not processed. as we mentioned earlier. Greater financial client protection is needed in this area. This is one of two big problems at the moment: the first is that the mortgage loan does not work, because under the 2014 Act the mortgage client remains unprotected.

Another problem “occurs when a customer is attacked by a computer and their account is emptied. Fraud rates in the payment services industry are high. The bank should take responsibility, but you will end up having to go to court to get that money back. The client, as expected, did not make any transfers or movements. There is currently a draft European regulation which will hopefully improve the situation for these affected customers. “This is about supporting the objective responsibility of the bank.”

Fernando Sunsunegui makes it clear that “the current claims system has reached its limit and important changes are needed. The number of existing claims is projected to double to around 60,000 by 2024, according to the Bank of Spain itself.

The report highlights that the increase in mortgage claims, which account for 30.6% of the total, is “undoubtedly due to the influence of Supreme Court jurisprudence on abuse clauses, as well as what has been agreed in recent years by the Court of Justice of the EU.” European Union (EEU).

Consumer associations and law firms specialized in dealing with banking complaints are informing consumers of their rights, who can complain even if they have previously been sued, reminds the Bank of Spain.

The Bank of Spain draws attention to a large number of claims – 61% – that cannot be accepted, mainly because the authority does not have jurisdiction, so the most appropriate method is to go to court.

By essence, CaixaBank, the largest in the Spanish market, was the bank that registered the most complaints. with 9,474. Next comes BBVA with 5,904. Santander has 3,763, compared with 2,381 for Unicaja, 1,662 for Sabadell and 1,242 for Baninter.

30% of claims come from mortgage loans, another 20% from filing cabinets and 15% from current accounts. The reason for the most complaints was fraud (almost 8,700 cases), followed by 3,700 complaints about mortgage application costs. The technical service commissions reviewed approximately 2,000 complaints.