Ombudsmann-Tätigkeitsbericht 2012

ankenverband
Complaints repeatedly concern the termination of
loans by banks and notification thereof to SCHUFA
Holding AG (Germany’s largest credit reference
agency).
Often, customers fail to understand the terms of their
loan or they believe they have already paid too much
for the loan. In such cases, they want the ombudsman
to take a look at their loan agreements. Many of these
complaints can, however, be settled in advance by the
bank once again setting out and explaining the loan
repayment schedule.
Payments business – complaints in 2012
card-based
182
non-card-based
229
Account
management
999
Difficulty repaying a mortgage loan or consumer
loan plays a significant role in complaints every year.
In most cases, customers hope that their bank will
accommodate them in ombudsman proceedings.
It should, however, be noted that the ombudsman
cannot oblige banks to reduce or defer instalments
fixed under a lawful loan agreement. This is a
business-policy decision for each bank to take on its
own and, as such, is outwith the ombudsman’s control.
Nevertheless, the Ombudsman Scheme gives banks
and customers the opportunity to find a mutually
acceptable and satisfactory solution by way of a
compromise proposed by the ombudsman.
A recurrent issue in ombudsman proceedings is the
size of the fee charged for early repayment of a loan.
As the way the early repayment penalty should be
calculated has been clarified by German Federal Court
of Justice (BGH) rulings (most recently on 30 November
2004, BGHZ 161, 196; Wertpapier-Mitteilungen [WM]
2005, 322), related complaints are settled almost
largely in favour of banks.
In addition, complaints often concern fees charged to
the customer for repayment of a loan by another bank.
Release from joint liability for a mortgage loan also
repeatedly features in complaints.
Source: Association of German Banks, 30 June 2013.
In the area of payments business, 71% of complaints in
2012 concerned problems in connection with account
management, including opening and closing accounts.
The remainder were about conventional payments,
especially card transactions (13%) and credit transfers
(16%).
Account management complaints cover a wide range of
subjects: account management fees charged by a bank,
cases where the bank reduces an overdraft previously
granted to the customer or closes an account and
notifies SCHUFA Holding AG accordingly or blocks an
account after its attachment or when it value-dates
funds credited to an account. Payout of funds from a
current account as part of estate settlement services is
also included.
The possibility since 1 July 2010 to have an existing
current account operated as a so-called “P-account” (a
special account for over-indebted persons that protects
a minimum income against attachment) has led to
some uncertainty among customers about how the
relevant rules are implemented in practice. Particularly
the question of whether funds protected against
Tätigkeitsbericht 2012 101