Allowing more personal responsibility
Association of German Banks presents comprehensive consumer policy scheme

30 January 2007– The Association of German Banks has published an English-language version of the private commercial banks’ comprehensive consumer policy scheme, presenting a blueprint for a forward-looking consumer policy at both national and European level.

In doing so, the Association underlines the growing importance of a policy geared to the “mature consumer”. The European Union is taking crucial, positive steps in this area, it says:
It welcomes the fact that the European Commission is addressing the problem of the differences in the EU member states’ civil law regimes and the accompanying lack of legal certainty in the cross-border use of financial services. The Association points out that in the consumer credit sector, for example, customers today are being denied the opportunity to reap the benefits of a truly integrated internal market and that a single, appropriate EU-wide legal framework is essential for both consumers and banks. “Appropriate” also means in this context not telling consumers what to do but allowing them to make decisions for themselves. This should be taken into account in the amendment of the Consumer Credit Directive.

The Association argues that the “minimum harmonisation” approach pursued to date in consumer protection directives has not been a success. National legislation transposing directives differs too much to allow consumers and banks in the internal market to profit.
The aim should therefore be to establish a uniform EU-wide approach for cross-border business. Wherever possible, this should be attempted not by introducing new legal rules but by finding voluntary, market-oriented solutions.

The Association also stresses that consolidation of the partly contradictory consumer protection rules in the existing body of European law is urgently required. It would thus be a major step forward if, for example, the rules on the consumer’s right of withdrawal scattered among different European directives were to be combined into a single, consistent regulation. In this context, a model notice of right of withdrawal that is recognised in all EU member states should also be introduced.

The private commercial banks’ comprehensive consumer policy scheme is based on personal responsibility and partnership. It does not stop at informing and educating consumers. Wherever misunderstandings between customers and banks arise, these should be cleared up as soon as possible. The private commercial banks’ five ombudsmen are available to settle disputes quickly and unbureacratically without any charge to the customers. The Ombudsman Scheme, which has been part of the out-of-court customer complaints network for financial services (FIN-NET) ever since it was launched by the European Commission in 2001, has enjoyed wide-spread acceptance among both customer and banks for over 14 years.

The “fokus:verbraucher” series
The second, fully revised edition of the booklet “Banks and consumers – The comprehensive consumer policy scheme of the German private commercial banks” is published as part of the Association of German Banks’ “fokus:verbraucher – Information for consumers from the German private banks” series, which presents all the information specifically targeting consumers in the same recognisable format. The following publications in the “fokus:verbraucher” series are already available: “Ombudsmann der privaten Banken – Tätigkeitsbericht 2005” (Ombudsman’s Report 2005 – in German only), published in August 2006, “Online banking security – Information for online banking users” (September 2006) and “Credit Scoring – Part of modern lending” (November 2006).

Booklet [1,10 MB]