You are in conflict with your bank because you believe that it has inflicted excessive fees on you following a bank overdraft despite your precarious situation.
You are upset with your advisor, then with the banking network complaints department.
Without effect, you then have one option: enter a mediator to try to settle the dispute.
Will it be completely independent or will it favor the interests of your bank?
The doubt exists, in the eyes of the UFC-What to choose.
The consumers' association denounces a "lack of partiality" on the part of certain banking mediators. “Some are appointed directly by the banks. How can the individual have confidence? Doesn't the mediator have an interest in protecting the banking network in order to hope to continue his relationship with him in the future? »Asks Matthieu Robin, project manager at the UFC. The association is based on a report from the Financial Sector Advisory Committee (CCSF), made public this Thursday and which highlights the strengths and weaknesses of banking mediation.
“Mediators perform their mission with complete impartiality and their independence is monitored by the Consumer Mediation Assessment and Control Commission (CECMC).
This does not exclude also setting rules of ethics and good governance.
We must facilitate access to the mediator for consumers ”, confides Corinne Drommer, president of the CCSF.
A parliamentary mission charged by the Prime Minister to examine the means of reinforcing its "utility" must also submit its conclusions by July 31.
84% of requests deemed "inadmissible"
There are three types of banking mediation in France. One is public, provided by the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) when it comes to a conflict related to the stock market. There is that of a professional organization, established by the mediator chosen by the French Banking Federation (FBF), which represents all the banks. The last, known as “business mediation”, is private. Some networks, although members of the FBF, choose to dispense with the common mediator to appoint their own conciliator. This is the case, for example, of Société Générale, certain regional banks of Crédit Agricole, HSBC, Crédit du Nord or even Banques Populaires.
“We consider that the various mediation systems allow clients to obtain an independent, impartial and fair review of their file,” says Banques Populaires. For example, in 2020, regarding the opinions delivered by the mediator of the National Federation of Banques Populaires, the rates of favorable or partially favorable opinions to customers are higher than those observed in comparison with other mediation systems in the banking sector. "
According to calculations by the UFC-Que Choisir, 84% of requests are deemed "inadmissible" in the context of company mediation, against 62% for that of the professional organization and 51% for public mediation of the 'AMF. “Sometimes the mediator asks for the bank's authorization to take over a case, that's not possible! thunders Matthieu Robin. We want a complete overhaul of banking mediation with a single public mediator, common to all banking networks, for complete independence. "
This model already exists in the insurance sector where the mediator is collegially chosen by representatives of the companies, the CCSF and two outside professionals. It is, for the moment, excluded by the banking sector. On the other hand, all the parties (consumers, CCSF and banks) in particular have noted the establishment of an "emptiness period", the fact that a bank does not have the right to appoint a mediator if this one worked
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time ago within the network. Its duration, of two, three or five years, remains to be defined. "The consensus found makes it possible to underline that mediation brings together actors of good will who have a common interest in finding a favorable outcome", one reacts to the FBF.
