The public prosecutor’s office requested Tuesday before the Paris Court of Appeal the maximum fine of 187,500 euros against BNP Paribas Personal Finance for misleading commercial practice and concealment, considering that it had “hidden” the risks of its Helvet Immo loan from consumers.
Regretting the “weakness” of the penalty incurred, the representative of the public prosecutor also requested an obligation to publish the conviction “on the front page” of the main newspapers.
“The situation is shocking, you have more than 2,500 people whose lives have been wasted and a bank which has grown rich on the backs of its customers,” he said in conclusion, in a courtroom where had took place a hundred borrowers.
During the first instance trial, at the end of 2019, the prosecution had adopted an unusual position of neutrality.
This time, the public prosecutor’s office unambiguously demanded the conviction, emphasizing the importance of several decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union, which took place between the two trials, in the civil aspect of this case.
At the heart of this file in which the credit subsidiary of BNP Paribas disputes any fraudulent practice, the marketing, in 2008 and 2009, of more than 4,600 contracts for this loan contracted in Swiss francs but repayable in euros.
Intended for tax-free rental investment, this credit has become toxic in the wake of the financial crisis: the euro has fallen sharply against the Swiss currency, which has led to a surge in the amounts to be repaid.
Thus, a couple who had borrowed 143,000 euros and already paid 57,000 euros over 83 monthly payments, still had to repay 190,600 euros, “a 32% increase” in the capital remaining due, cited the Advocate General as an example.
In this situation, the bank has, according to him, a heavy responsibility: it committed “misleading omissions” in the loan offer and in the commercial arguments provided to the intermediaries.
“We hid a certain number of risks from the borrower to push him to take out this loan,” said Yves Micolet.
The approximately 2,500 people who are civil parties “were taking their first steps in finance and tax exemption”, underlined the magistrate.
“It was not they who were wrong but it was the bank who deceived them,” he said, mocking the “leak forward” of the company, whose “arguments have not their place before a court of appeal as they are not very serious”.
At first instance, the subsidiary was sentenced on February 26, 2020 to a fine of 187,500 euros and to pay more than 100 million in damages, immediately, despite its appeal.
The defense is due to plead in the afternoon.
alv/pa/sp
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