For years there has been a dispute about changing the interest rate on premium savings contracts.
The financial supervisory authority Bafin is now intervening.
But the topic is probably not off the table for now.
Bonn - savers who have received too little interest due to ineffective clauses in their premium savings contract receive support from the financial supervisory authority Bafin.
The authority took action after years of dispute and published a so-called general decree on Monday.
Credit institutions must therefore inform premium savings customers about ineffective interest rate adjustment clauses and, if necessary, make them an offer to recalculate the interest.
These are long-term contracts that were offered between 1990 and 2010.
Consumer advocates welcomed the approach, criticism came from banking associations.
"Since an amicable solution with the banks failed, we had to respond to this consumer protection-relevant grievance by means of a general decree," explained Bafin Executive Director Thorsten Pötzsch.
A round table of supervision with associations of the banking industry and consumer advocates remained without result at the end of November 2020.
The financial supervisory authority has now obliged financial institutions to inform premium savings customers whether they have received insufficient interest due to ineffective interest rate adjustment clauses.
In these cases, the institutes would have to irrevocably guarantee their customers a retroactive interest calculation or offer an amendment contract with an effective interest rate adjustment clause that takes into account the case law of the Federal Court of Justice (BHG) from 2010.
Affected institutes have to implement the requirements twelve weeks after notification of the general ruling.
You can, however, file an objection with the Bafin.
Pötzsch assumes that some money houses will do the same.
"We will examine every contradiction and then send every institute an objection notice." Some institutes would presumably apply to the administrative court.
“This is the usual procedure in the rule of law.” But he assumes that the general order will stand in court, said Pötzsch.
A premium savings contract is a long-term form of savings with variable interest rates and constant savings.
In addition to the interest, customers receive a premium, which is usually staggered according to the term of the contract.
It's about contracts that institutes offered between 1990 and 2010.
These contain clauses that give financial institutions the right to unilaterally change the guaranteed interest rate.
The Federal Court of Justice declared the clauses ineffective in 2004 and commented on the requirements for the clauses in subsequent decisions in 2010 and 2017.
However, details were still controversial.
Consumer advocates accuse savings banks in particular of having lowered interest rates on their own initiative with the help of interest rate adjustment clauses.
"It is good that the Bafin has not given in to the pressure of the savings banks and banks and jumps to the side of customers," said Jutta Gurkmann from the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (vzbv).
The credit institutions would now have to inform all those concerned that they may have been paid too little interest.
"That will help consumers to enforce claims for back payments."
Julian Merzbacher, consumer protection expert at the citizens' movement Finanzwende, assumes "that we are dealing with a large number of non-legally compliant clauses."
The five large banking associations, which are part of the Deutsche Kreditwirtschaft (DK), declared: "In our opinion, the case law of the BGH of 2004 has been appropriately implemented in the affected and later premium savings contracts." The BGH will soon decide whether further legal criteria for interest rate adjustment clauses should be observed would have to.
It is astonishing that the Bafin anticipates this clarification, for which the civil courts are responsible.
The institutes concerned would now check whether they were filing an objection to the general ruling, the DK announced.
dpa
