“60 Million Consumers” accuses BNP Paribas of charging its most vulnerable customers heavily in the event of banking incidents. The institution is also singled out for the very significant salary gap between its employees and its director, Jean-Laurent Bonnafé.
The association “60 Million Consumers” paints a vitriolic portrait of BNP Paribas in a study published in its latest issue. It accuses the institution of being “particularly ruthless towards vulnerable customers” and to distinguish themselves “in the overcharging and the harshness of its rates for payment incidents”. The information letter for unauthorized debit account is taken as an example. This letter, supposed to warn the customer that a payment or a direct debit has been refused by the bank, is a “reliable indicator to mark the level of hardness of a bank towards its customers in difficulty”explains 60 Million. Contacted by Capitalthe bank “regrets that 60 Million Consumers based its work on association reports incorporating several methodological biases.”
BNP Paribas stands out, since its warning letter reaches the amount “exorbitant” of 20 euros. Much more than other establishments, whose rates vary between 0 and 15 euros. Its minimum amount of overdraft fees per quarter is also the highest on the market – 7 euros, like SG -, where Bred (BPCE), LCL or Crédit coopératif do not impose any. Its online subsidiary, Hello Bank!, which now has more than a million customers, is also accused of charging “heavy interests» in case of overdraft and a “quarterly penalty package from the first cent of excess”.
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Salary gaps highlighted
Overall, BNP gets the worst rating on the market in the “pricing policy” category, alongside SG. The establishment retorts that it is “very attentive to supporting his clients in a personalized way” with “tailored offers to meet different needs (cash flow facilities, overdraft authorization, etc.)”The bank added that since 2019 it has implemented an automatic monthly cap of 25 euros on fees for payment incidents and irregularities in the operation of the account for all customers detected as fragile.
The distribution of wealth generated by BNP is also widely criticized by 60 Million Consumers. The group is distinguished by a huge salary gap between its employees and its CEO, Jean-Laurent Bonnafé. His remuneration amounts to 366,824 euros per month, or 33 times more than the average salary of the group. If SG manages to do worse – its CEO Slawomir Krupa earns 45 times more than his employees -, most of its competitors are below this threshold: 20 times for BPCE, 23 times for the Crédit Agricole group or 12 times for Crédit Mutuel.
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