For the first time in its history, which began in 2009, the Financial Banking Arbitrator (ABF) recorded a decrease in the number of appeals in 2018 received compared to the previous year (-12%). Out of the total mass of over 27 appeals – we read in the latest Annual Report of the ABF – the significant drop (-22%) of those linked to the issue of salary/pension assignments certainly weighed, which, in any case, continue to represent the majority share (64%).
For Magda Bianco, Head of the Customer Protection and Anti-Money Laundering Service of the Bank of Italy in whose perimeter of responsibilities the operations of the ABF fall, this trend can be read as a success following the establishment of a virtuous circle that can be configure as follows: "The successful definition of consolidated and uniform guidelines of the ABF in this matter, the possibility of carrying out supervisory interventions against the intermediaries subject to the greatest number of appeals, the continuous dialogue with the stakeholders to arrive at the issuance of Supervisory guidelines and, finally, the reduction of appeals with a desirable implicit advance management of the dispute in the complaints stage”.
It should also be emphasized - as emerges from reading the ABF Report - that this decline is partially offset by growth (over 15%) of appeals relating to savings deposits, credit cards and other forms of consumer credit. The data for the first quarter of this year seem to confirm the 2018 trend with a further slowdown (-14%) in the number of salary/pension assignment appeals, which thus fall to 53% of the total amount .
With full operation of the 4 new Arbitration Boards, established at the end of 2016 and which joined the original 3, their activity has been strengthened, which can be well summarized in these two figures: over 500 meetings and just over 32.900 decisions. Focusing on the geographical distribution of the Colleges' activities, it can be noted that the data with the greatest influx of appeals refers to that of Rome, which also in 2018 continues to score positive values compared to the previous year, being the recipient of over a fifth of the total ( 21%). At the opposite end of this ranking is the Collegio di Torino with a share of 7%.
To complete this overview, the high percentage (69%) of appeals with a substantially favorable outcome for the appellant and the total amount of reimbursements (21 million euros); a figure that is even more significant if one considers that the maximum limit of the petition cannot exceed 100 euros.
These data testify to the degree of diffusion of this out-of-court tool for settling conflicts which – it should be remembered – can be accessed with the payment of 20 euros, which are reimbursed by the intermediary in the event of his/her loss. The success of the ABF is also indirectly confirmed by the fact that a similar model has been used since 2017 for financial disputes with Consob and that from 2020 there will be an arbitrator also for the insurance sector, set up at IVASS.
Moving on to some qualitative aspects, a mention should be made of the decision-making orientations of the Colleges which in some cases present innovative cues, or, in any case, also useful for traditional jurisprudence. One for all is that of the Coordination Board (a body of the ABF set up in 2012 to rule on issues of particular importance, or in the event of non-uniform orientations of the various Boards) which has expressed itself on the conditions in the presence of which it can be presumed that the policy combined with the loan - and qualified as optional - is instead mandatory and, therefore, to be included in the APR (Global Effective Annual Rate) submitted to the customer
A quick reference should also be made to a critical area of the ABF, that of response times, of the times, that is, to arrive at a decision. On this front - underlines Magda Bianco - there have been significant efforts by the Colleges and also by the relative technical secretariats in terms of "improving the efficiency of the machine" and, consequently, the disposal of the previous backlog. A constant commitment, as most recently demonstrated by "the reduction in average response times from 266 days in 2018 to 237 recorded in the first quarter of this year". And this is certainly another positive aspect of the ABF compared to the much longer average times of Italian civil justice.
Finally, there are two other elements, which in the short-term operational perspective outlined by Bianco, seem to foreshadow a further improvement on the delicate side of timing". On the one hand, the use of the IT portal with a reduction in paper volumes and its future extension of use by intermediaries; on the other, the revision of the provisions that regulate the activity of the ABF with a possible desirable streamlining of some procedural steps”.
