Report on Alternative Dispute Resolution in Banking

In the first 9 months of 2017, the following were registered:

• (approximately) 5,300 consumer requests by phone;
• 662 written applications:
  • 267 of the written applications were found compliant;
  • 381 were questions or requests for miscellaneous/general information to which the Procedural Secretariat replied in writing;
  • 14 non-compliant applications.

Means of filing compliant applications:

• 184 were filed by email;
• 46 were brought to, and registered by consumers with the office of ABDRC.
• 37 were mailed by consumers.

Qualification of the 267 compliant applications:

• 73 turned into casefiles (4 casefiles consolidated into 2 casefiles);
• 47 in screening phase (review of documents);
• 147 closed;

Breakdown of the 73 casefiles managed under the conciliation procedure (71 casefiles further to the two consolidations):

• 25 resolutions rendered;
• 15 reports issued (2 consolidated casefiles);
• 7 resolution notes served;
• 7 preliminary casefiles;
• 14 casefiles in phase of discussions/meetings with the parties (2 consolidated casefiles);
• 2 inadmissibility resolutions;
• 1 casefile in which the trader withdrew from the procedure.

Sources of consumer information about ABDRC:

• Banks 27% (loan agreements, replies to complaints, front-office employees, websites of banks, leaflets in bank agencies)
• National Consumer Protection Authority 21%
• Googling (Google, ABDRC website) 8%
• Media 7%
• Facebook 4%
• Acquaintances/friends 4%
• No answer 29%

NOTE:

Both the interest and awareness of the consumers of ABDRC have raised compared to last year. As regards the number of casefiles under review, the results of the first 9 months of 2017 are almost 50% better than for the entire 2016, according to the figure compared:

In 2016 (March – December), the following were registered:

• 235 compliant applications – 23.5 applications per month;
• 46 casefiles – 4.6 casefiles per month;
• 26 non-compliant applications – 2.6/month.

In the first 9 months of 2017, the following were registered:

• 267 applications – 30 applications per month;
• 73 casefiles – 8.1 casefiles per month;
• 14 non-compliant applications – 1.5/month.