- Credit institutions must provide detailed information on the requests submitted by affected consumers
- The decree also makes the term for setting up the reserve fund for bank foundations more flexible
The Council of Ministers has approved a Royal Decree creating and regulating the Monitoring, Control and Evaluation Commission of the extrajudicial mechanism for the return of undue floor clauses. This regulation develops Royal Decree-Law 1/2017, of January 20, on urgent measures to protect consumers in terms of floor clauses and regulates the composition of the commission, the functions it will carry out and the information obligations that credit institutions have to assume.
The out-of-court channel for the claim of the amounts unduly charged by the floor clauses was established last January after the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union. In it it was established that the restitution of the floor clauses should take place from the date of the signing of the mortgage contract. It is a mechanism that allows consumers affected to make complaints to credit institutions simply, quickly and free of charge.
The Monitoring Commission will be in charge of collecting and evaluating the information transferred to it by the Bank of Spain obtained from credit institutions. It will publish a report every six months evaluating the degree of compliance with the out-of-court complaint mechanism.
To meet this objective, credit institutions will have to submit the following information:
- Number of applications submitted, those that have ended with an agreement and those that have not been possible to reach such an agreement, as well as the reasons.
- Amount corresponding to the applications submitted, those that have ended with an agreement and those that have not been possible to reach such agreement
- Number and amount of compensatory measures other than cash back that have been offered to consumers
- Each entity must inform about the system that it has implemented to guarantee prior communication to consumers, whose mortgage loan includes floor clauses
Likewise, the Commission may request information from the Ministry of Justice on judicial procedures. Specifically, those in which individual actions are exercised on general contracting conditions, included in financing contracts with real estate collateral and whose borrower is a natural person.
The Commission will be made up of the deputy governor of the Bank of Spain, who will preside over it; the technical general secretary of the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness; a representative of the Ministry of Justice; a representative from the Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality; a representative of the Council of Consumers and Users; a representative of the General Council of Spanish Lawyers; a representative of the General Council of the Judiciary; and a representative of the Spanish Mortgage Association.
On the other hand, the Royal Decree extends the term of constitution of the reserve fund of the Banking Foundations that control credit institutions, from the current 5 years extendable two more by authorization of the Bank of Spain, to 8 years extendable one more. The terms count from the date the Bank of Spain Circular of June 2015 came into force. In addition, until the reserve fund reaches the target amount, bank foundations must allocate 30% of the dividends received by bank entities to it. credit, percentage that previously was 50%. Both modifications allow giving a certain flexibility to endow the reserve fund, without diminishing the main purpose of reinforcing the solvency of the old savings banks.
The Council of Ministers has also approved the transposition of the European directive that establishes transparency requirements related to information on issuers whose securities are admitted to trading on a regulated market. The amendment introduces the power of the CNMV to suspend the exercise of voting rights associated with financial instruments that have been acquired without complying with the corresponding communication obligations.
In addition, the regulation on payment and securities settlement systems has been approved for adaptation to community regulations. The objective of these changes is to allow the adaptation of Iberclear, the Spanish payment and securities settlement platform, to Target2-Securities, the pan-European platform of which it will form part since September of this year and to reinforce the protection of the guarantees granted in the securities clearing and settlement operations.
