{"id":9927,"date":"2020-07-10T13:38:26","date_gmt":"2020-07-10T10:38:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/csalb.ro\/?p=9927"},"modified":"2020-07-10T13:40:52","modified_gmt":"2020-07-10T10:40:52","slug":"abdrc-recommendations-to-banks-fewer-closed-applications-flexible-mandates-genuine-negotiation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/csalb.ro\/en\/press-releases\/abdrc-recommendations-to-banks-fewer-closed-applications-flexible-mandates-genuine-negotiation\/","title":{"rendered":"ABDRC Recommendations to Banks: Fewer Closed Applications, Flexible Mandates, Genuine Negotiation"},"content":{"rendered":"

During a period marked by the pandemic-triggered economic hardships, the ABDRC representatives recommend to the financial and banking institutions a number of measures required for the best possible outcome of the negotiations between consumers and banks. The key recommendation regards the applications received by ABDRC from consumers, but which are then rejected by banks\/NBFIs. Their number should be reduced, say the representatives of ABDRC, in particular during a period when the flexibility of banks\/NBFIs and the support afforded to consumers are mandatory for them to preserve their trust in the financial and banking institutions.<\/p>\n

Bucharest, 8 July 2020. Increasingly more banks recommend their clients to approach the Alternative Banking Dispute Resolution Centre (ABDRC). In the context where BCR, BRD and Banca Transilvania have urged their clients to turn to ABDRC when they experience difficulties in performance of their context, we hear the same piece of advice also from ING, Raiffeisen and CEC Bank. In this regard, the ABDRC representatives recommend to the financial and banking institutions a number of measures required for the best possible outcome of the negotiations between consumers and banks.<\/strong><\/p>\n

ABDRC recommendations to improve conciliation<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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  1. The applications referred by ABDRC to banks should be reviewed by the credit institution with the necessary amount of flexibility for a settlement. In this regard, we recommend that, by the end of year, the number of applications closed on unreasonable grounds should drop below 20% of the total number of applications referred to the bank.<\/strong> Essentially, efforts has been constantly employed to bring this performance indicator below 10% or even 5%.
    \nFor the time being, the average share of applications closed on unreasonable grounds<\/strong> across the entire banking system in 2020 is 29% of the total number of applications received by ABDRC. For NBFIs, more than 70% such applications are unreasonably closed.
    \nThere are also banks which report a better figure than the average, meaning their closure percentage is below 10%.
    \nAn important share of the closed applications have been rejected for valid reasons.<\/strong> For instance, since 2018 and to date, close to 600 applications have concerned the Credit Office (of which, 220 this year alone). We would like to remind you that most of the applications concerning the Credit Office, the First House programmed, assigned loans have been rejected because, on a case-by-case basis, there is an applicable special piece of legislation which gives but limited, if no, actual room for negotiation. <\/span><\/li>\n
  2. In the negotiation stage, to our minds, a settlement can be envisaged when the banks shows a genuine willingness to negotiated, and the solution they come up with is fair.<\/strong> In other words, a balance needs to be struck between the consumer’s claims and the concessions made by the bank.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. We recommend that the people in charge in the Complaints, Customer Services, Risk, and Commercial Departments should engage stronger with the ADR departments.<\/strong> In this regard, we believe that a review of the contracts’ performance should be conducted prevailing in terms of the ability of consumers to continue with their respective contracts (striving to have their payment capacity improved by rebalancing), and not only in terms of their lawfulness, because this is not at all what consumers are claiming. <\/span><\/li>\n
  4. We suggest that the mandates granted to the bank representatives in negotiations should have flexible boundaries<\/strong> so as to allow the bank, further to negotiations within ABDRC, to put forward an offer that is better than the bank’s current commercial offer.<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. We recommend banks to settle amicably as much of the applications, which they would have otherwise unreasonably rejected<\/strong>, as possible, in particular when it comes to less complex cases. Therefore, when it comes to choosing between refusing conciliation and negotiating with consumers in the bank’s premises, we recommend you to pursue the second avenue. <\/span><\/li>\n
  6. It is important that banks accept applications<\/strong> related to payment services also from corporate clients<\/strong>. As of 2020, ABDRC can provide conciliation services also in connection with such cases involved legal entities. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \u201cThe difficult times that consumers, banks and the economy overall are going through now can be a good time to restart the contractual or business relations between the parties. We urge the banks to adopt these examples of good practices that we have obtained with our common efforts, and put them in place in their daily work with a view to increasing the quality of the services their offer to individuals and corporations. Therefore, we recommend banks to accept for negotiation more applications submitted by consumers, to issue flexible negotiation mandates to their representatives, and to adopt an approach that is based more on equity and humanity, rather than on legal reviews that are more appropriate for court proceedings. In the end of these difficult times, the winners will definitely be those that will have managed to remain trustworthy for consumers, including with their alternative resolution work via ABDRC\u201d<\/i>, says Alexandru P\u0103unescu, Chairman of ABDRC Steering Board.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

    Banks recommend consumers to negotiate via ABDRC<\/strong>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ke1aBg6Orbo<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n