A bill tabled on January 4 by the senator of Eure, Hervé Maurey (Les Centristes) aims to regulate inheritance bank charges, which are regularly criticized by consumer associations for their abusive nature and their lack of transparency.
These fees, taken from the bank accounts of the deceased, reach on average 233 € in France for an inheritance of 200,000 €, according to estimates by UFC-Que Choisir, ” and do not spare small inheritances since they can be owed on a flat-rate basis from the first euro held in a bank account. Some banks thus take a sum of 300 euros regardless of the amount of the credit. », Underlines the text.
A level of fees disconnected from the costs borne by banks
“Disconnected from any economic reality, [le niveau de ces frais est] much higher than that observed among our European neighbors (almost three times greater than in Spain for example) and differs significantly from one bank to another », Indicates the senator, who proposes to supervise them by providing that they must be in relation to the costs actually borne by the banks by a method of calculation which would be fixed by decree.
” Banks take advantage of the fact that the French do not look at these fees when choosing their banking offer to apply rates that are often unjustified ”, specifies Hervé Maurey.
+ 28% increase in ten years
For the elected representative, the invoicing of certain services, “free” during the customer’s lifetime, ” reinforces doubts about their justification. For example, a quarter of banks charge for transferring funds to another institution, for an average price of 145 euros, when a customer during his lifetime generally does not pay anything for this type of operation. The sharp increase in these costs in recent years, + 28% since 2012, or three times more than inflation over this period, supports their disconnection from economic realities. “
Its supervision would be justified all the more so as the legislation already imposes a certain number of tariff obligations on French banks to limit abusive practices: free for closing an account of a customer during his lifetime, capping the costs of overrun of overdraft, rejection of check or direct debit, or even those withdrawn from an inactive account …
A subject regularly pinned down in parliament
The senator’s text should be examined in the Finance Committee. The abusive practices of bank inheritance fees have been the subject of more than thirty questions to the government over the past ten years, without resulting so far in their supervision.
The current executive is not a priori receptive either: While the Treasury department recently recommended that the Financial Sector Advisory Committee (CCSF) work on the subject, advocating more transparency in the application of these fees , Bercy decided a few months ago to postpone sine die this work, reported UFC Que-Chooser.