A few additional euros in the event of an authorized overdraft, rejection of checks, transfer or levy … All these additional costs weigh down the least affluent household budget. A bill to limit these banking costs was filed on September 16 by the National Rally. But it is not the first.
Last April, the French Communist Party had tabled the National Assembly a bill to prohibit banking costs in the event of an overdraft, what are called fixed agios, as well as intervention commissions and newsletters billed to customers. According to a study by panorabanques, 45% of French people are uncovered at least once a year, with an average amount of 223 euros. Almost one in five French people are uncovered from the 16th of the month. Thus, on average, a customer pays 113 euros per year just for banking incidents, can be read in the law presented by the deputy Yannick Monnet (PCF).
Law proposals to supervise banking costs
Thus, the communist party’s bill provides for the abolition of the majority of bank incident costs or commissions related to the intervention of the bank, as well as the costs linked to the acts of the banking establishment following the establishment of an administrative entry. The text also plans to cap current bank charges related to the normal management management and the implementation of a sanction for banks that do not comply with the ceilings or banking costs. The bill has already been examined in the finance committee and then in public session in the Assembly.
As for the text deposited by the national rally, it intends to limit the invoicing of a commission or additional costs by credit institutions in response to an operating irregularity or a payment incident. The only exception: the costs related to the rejection of a dismissal check. The maximum amount of the costs of invoicable by a banking establishment would then be fixed by decree. The bill brought by the deputy Jean-Philippe Tanguy (RN) has for the moment been returned to the finance committee and does not appear on the agenda of public sessions, the ordinary session of deputies only resuming on October 1.
Rules already exist in terms of banking costs. The law of July 26, 2013 relating to the separation and regulation of banking activities caps the cost of intervention commissions at 8 euros per operation and 80 euros per month. Other ceilings exist: 30 euros for the rejection of a check (50 euros when the amount is more than 50 euros) and 20 euros maximum for a direct debit rejection.
17% of banks do not comply with the regulations in force
Despite these ceilings, the costs applied by banking establishments remain fairly opaque. Especially since certain acts escape the ceilings, in particular the newsletter for unauthorized debtor. In a survey, the consumer association UFC-Que Choisir reveals that, out of 15 banks analyzed, six do not clearly communicate to their customers the applied lump sum agios. It also points to the practice of “minimum flat -rate”, fixed costs imposed on small overdrafts (less than 400 euros), even when authorized.
In addition, the Directorate General for Competition, Consumption and the Repression of Fraud (DGCCRF), in a survey carried out for two years, stresses that 17% of banking establishments do not comply with the regulations in force. Banks are still too many to invoice abusive intervention commissions, whereas no irregularity has been noted on the bank account, not to comply with the regulatory cap of the intervention commissions or to invoice the holding of the commission of intervention in addition to the costs of rejection of check or withdrawal, while these costs should be included. In addition, the DGCCRF found that certain banks lacked transparency towards their customers.
