Do you want a loan? Okay, but to get it you also have to take out an insurance policy which has nothing to do with the loan. This would be the unfair commercial practice implemented by the financial companies Agos Ducato and Findomestic Banca together with the insurance company Cardif. The three companies ended up in the crosshairs of the Antitrust, which started investigations on the recommendation of the Insurance Supervisory Institute (Ivass).
The suspicion is that Agos Ducato e Findomestic Bank subordinated consumer credit to the signing of policies that had nothing to do with loans. The Antitrust speaks of a "binding practice" between banking and insurance products, contrary to the law and the Consumer Code.
There are actually two insurance companies involved: Cardif Assurance Vie e Cardif Assurances Risques Divers. They are accused of denying consumers who paid off their loans early the repayment of part of their insurance premiums. The reason? According to them there was no connection between the two products.
"The two companies - writes the Antitrust - would not have carried out any verification activity towards the financial companies regarding forced combinations and, in general, monitoring and control regarding the method of placing the insurance products in question".
To ascertain this conduct, on 18 April the Authority's officials, with the collaboration of the Special Antitrust Unit of the Guardia di Finanza, carried out a series of inspections in the offices of the companies involved.
Read the Antitrust press release.
