The news should reassure many French people. According to Le Parisien, a decree aimed at better regulating bank charges in the event of payment incidents is being examined by the Council of State. The text will allow a larger number of “fragile” French people to take advantage of the system in place since 2018, with a ceiling of 25 euros monthly on bank charges. The government plans to increase the number of beneficiaries of the ceiling by 15%, which now concerns 1.5 million French people.
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The current text provides for two major changes compared to the 2018 version. The first concerns the very definition of "fragile customers" affected by the system. Until then, the measure concerned customers guilty of account irregularities or repeated payment incidents " for three consecutive months ". From now on, a customer will be considered fragile if he accumulates "five irregularities or payment incidents in the same month". In addition, consumers who enter the system will have their costs capped at 25 euros for three consecutive months, against only one month today.
A definition still too random
The only problem is that the threshold under which banks detect their “fragile” customers and can enforce this decree remains at their discretion. And this differs from one establishment to another. "At BNP Paribas, the ceiling below which a client can be detected as fragile in the event of incidents is set at 1,900 euros, while this ceiling is 1,497 euros at the CIC," explains Parisian Matthieu Robin, in charge of financial sector mission to UFC Que Choisir.
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"When we take a public cap measure, as is the will of the Minister, it is unthinkable to rely on the discretionary appreciation of banks or this is what it does since the appreciation of fragility financial situation of a client is defined in a variable manner from one bank to another according to the usual financial flows of his clients, ” also regrets Jean-Yves Mano, president of CLCV (Consumption Housing Living environment) with the Parisian . And Matthieu Robin to abound: "From the moment we do not harmonize the definition of what a fragile client is, the decree loses its ambition."
