The Bank of Spain requires banks to comply with the transfer of accounts, according to OCU

MADRID, 2 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Bank of Spain has agreed to require banking entities to modify their procedures to comply with current regulations on the payment account transfer regime, as reported today by the Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU).

Through a statement, the association recalls that it went to the Bank of Spain in 2020 to denounce the "obstacles" that some financial institutions put in place to "prevent their clients from transferring their current account" to another bank.

In March 2019, a European regulation came into force with the aim of simplifying and facilitating the switching of accounts between entities for consumers and thus favoring the level of competition between banks.

One year after the regulations entered into force, OCU carried out an analysis to verify its application, if the banks informed consumers and complied with the obligations in the account transfer procedure.

"The results were so disastrous that OCU denounced 21 entities before the Bank of Spain for preventing the effective application of the regulations," the organization stated. In addition, he also filed a complaint with the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) for possible "unfair" practices derived from such conduct, a complaint that is pending resolution.

The complaint prompted a specific supervisory action by the Bank of Spain, which would have detected "deficiencies" in the way in which some entities are carrying out the aforementioned transfer of accounts; specifically, in relation to making the application form available to customers, the reasons alleged by the entity to deny the transfer and the way in which those reasons are communicated to consumers, as indicated by OCU.

As a consequence, the Bank of Spain would have agreed to require supervised entities to modify their procedures in order to guarantee that they comply with current regulations, a situation that the OCU "welcomes". "After two years of waiting, the Bank of Spain confirms our conclusions and issues a request to the supervised entities", the organization has highlighted.