The Competition and Market Authority has launched three preliminary proceedings for alleged unfair commercial practices against three banks: Banca Nazionale del Lavoro SpA, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA and UniCredit SpA.
The proceedings are aimed at ascertaining whether the three banks have engaged in conduct in violation of the Consumer Code in relation to the practice of banking compound interest. In particular, until the entry into force of the art. 17-bis of Legislative Decree 18/2016, which reaffirmed the ban on anatocism unless previously authorized by the customer, these banks would continue to apply bank anatocism, despite the express prohibition contained in the 2014 stability law.
After the reform carried out in 2016, the three banking institutions allegedly adopted aggressive methods to induce their consumer customers to authorize the debit. To ascertain this conduct, today the Authority's officials carried out a series of inspections in the offices of BNL, Intesa Sanpaolo and UniCredit, with the help of the special Antitrust Unit of the Guardia di Finanza.
