two deputies attack the cash machine of the banks

A bill, co-signed by two centrist deputies, wants to halve the fees charged by banks in the event of payment incidents.

Unfair, arbitrary, overpriced: the pricing practices of French banks in terms of payment incidents continue to arouse mistrust. Consumer associations, which regularly return to the charge on the subject: the Court of Auditors, which pointed out the problem in its last annual report; and also national representation.

Two deputies from the Liberties and Territories group, Bertrand Pancher and Charles de Courson decided to tackle this jackpot, estimated at 6.7 billion euros per year, in a bill aimed at tightening the framework for these costs, already capped by law, but insufficiently, they believe. The text, tabled on December 21, will be examined next Tuesday, January 25, 2022, by the Assembly’s Finance Committee, before a public session scheduled for February 4.

Limit 4euros for intervention commissions

First target: intervention commissions, invoiced each time a bank authorizes the passage of a payment on an overdraft account or overdraft authorized. A long-standing cried tariff line, with many observers believing that its price is totally unrelated to its real cost for the bank.

Since 2014, its price has been capped, for all customers, at 8 euros per transaction and 80 euros per month, which had had the effect of making all the brands converge towards these prices, at the price of decreases but also sometimes increases. The two deputies propose to divide these ceilings by two, to bring them back 4 euros and 40 euros. They also propose to add a annual cap, fixed at 300 euros. These caps would be divided by 4 for people in financial difficulty. Or one euro per operation, 20 euros per month and 75 euros per year.

Bertrand Pancher and Charles de Courson also refer to the costs of payment incidents, invoiced by the banks in the event of check rejection or debit for insufficient balance. Here too, they are advocating a halving of the ceilings currently in force, for all customers.

For rejected checks, they would thus pass from 30 to 15 euros for checks for an amount less than 50 euros, and 50 25euros for the others; for other means of payment, from 20 to 10 euros, with a ceiling of 100euros per month and 500euros per year. Fragile customers would benefit from ceilings four times lower: 4euros for a check under 50, 6euros above and 2.50euros for other incidents, with a monthly ceiling of 25euros and an annual ceiling of 125euros.

Unified criteria for assessing financial fragility

The two deputies also want to toughen the criteria used by banks to detect the financial fragility of their customers. For the moment, they have, in fact, a margin of appreciation, since they are authorized to provide thresholds of income or credit flows on the account, below which customers are not eligible. A situation that directly contravenes the principle of equality, notes the explanatory memorandum to the proposal: Concretely, a person may be recognized as being in precariousness by one bank, but be refused this status by another.

The text therefore suggests remove these thresholds and to use only the common criteria already defined by law: the accumulation of five payment incidents during a month and/or the filing of an over-indebtedness file, even if it has not yet t declared admissible.

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A right to an account for victims of domestic violence

The text, finally, wants to reform the procedure of the right to the account, which allows any person residing in France to seize the Banque de France when a bank refuses to open an account.

This procedure, too, is regulated by law, particularly in terms of deadlines: the banks designated by the Banque de France have 3 days to open the account. In practice, however, these deadlines are not met. The Court of Auditors (…) refers to a average delay of more than two weeks, which sometimes leads vulnerable people to turn to more expensive options, deplore the deputies. A delay justified by the banks by their obligations in terms of knowing your customer, in the context of the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, which often lead them to ask customers for additional documents.

To solve this problem, the text provides a two-step opening. The bank would first, within the legal period of 3 days, open the account on the basis of the strictly necessary documents (proof of identity and residence), then would then carry out the additional checks.

Finally, the bill tackles a serious problem: that of people who are victims of domestic violence, already holders of a joint account with their spouse, and therefore de facto excluded from the right to the account. It proposes to create, for the people concerned, a right to open an individual account in the establishment of their choice.

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