If it weren't the largest German bank, what happened today would have the flavor of historical nemesis. After having ended up under the magnifying glass of Consob for having sold over seven billion Btp in a few months, Deutsche Bank has also made the Italian Antitrust nervous. And now he finds himself with a fine of 100 thousand euros. Of course, the amount to be paid is completely insignificant for an institution like the one in Frankfurt. But it is significant that even one of the major European financial powers could be caught failing to respect the contracts signed with customers.
The case concerns a particular type of mortgage: the one with a variable rate and duration, but with a constant number of installments. The agreement, as stated in the general contract conditions, provides that "every partial early repayment of the loan entails the automatic reduction of the amount of the installments still due", the number of which remains unchanged. For this reason, in any such circumstance, the bank should "calculate the amortization plan on the basis of the residual debt". In at least one case, however, Deutsche Bank failed to honor the agreements.
A customer has repaid part of his debt in advance and the institution has shortened the duration of the residual repayment, without however touching the amount of the individual installments. "Taking into account the particular information asymmetry that characterizes the relationship between economic operators and consumers in the financial sector - reads the latest weekly bulletin of the Authority -, the conduct of Deutsche Bank must be considered non-compliant with the level of professional diligence required, in the event of species, in relation to the complexity of the services offered and the consequent need to ensure consumers clear and complete information on the essential elements of the professional's commercial proposal".
