CB instructed banks to stop imposing unnecessary services on clients

The Central Bank conducted another monitoring of the work of commercial banks and demanded that they stop imposing unnecessary additional services using a “general offer”.

As part of the study, the regulator established that when trying to use a certain service through a mobile application, some banks offer the consumer to first confirm the “general (basic) offer”. Such an offer can often consist of a large number of pages that cover not only the service necessary for a person, but also the terms or contracts for all services provided by the bank through the mobile application.

As a result, when a person accepts the “basic offer”, they agree not only to the service they planned to use but also to others they didn’t need. The Central Bank noted that, as a rule, consumers either do not familiarize themselves in detail with the terms of the contract in the mobile application, or give consent without fully understanding its content, believing that they agree only to the terms of the service they have chosen.

Taking advantage of consumers’ inattention, some banks combine the terms for several of their services in the format of a “basic offer” and thus obtain the client’s consent for several services at once. In the future, this can lead to disputes between the bank and the consumer, where the client claims: “I did not request this service when agreeing to the offer” or “I am told that I agreed to other terms then”, — the message says.

In addition, the Central Bank considered cases where a user’s credit card debt expires and some banks automatically block it. At the same time, if funds are deposited into such a card, a bank commission is deducted from them. The regulator emphasized that such actions contradict the principles of fairness and a reasonable approach and lead to the violation of consumer rights enshrined in legislation.

The Central Bank emphasized that it considers such practices to be unfair in their essence, in connection with which the regulator demanded the following points from all commercial banks:

• provide offers only within the chosen service, clearly and transparently;
• not to abuse their dominant position in negotiations with clients;
• When establishing commissions, the principles of fairness and transparency must be strictly observed.

Earlier, it was reported that the Central Bank did not change the key rate. The solution should ensure a stable decrease in inflation and minimize risks.