PRESS RELEASE

BANKS:  ANTITRUST AUTHORITY LAUNCHES FACT-FINDING INQUIRY INTO ATM FEES AND OBSTACLES TO ACCOUNT CLOSURE

Responding to numerous consumer complaints about various banking mechanisms that had previously been modified to heighten competition

New Antitrust spotlight - banking fees paid by clients. In response to numerous consumer complaints, the Antitrust Authority is launching a fact-finding investigation into pricing typologies, magnitudes and dynamics for bank accounts and collection and payment services.

Pre-dated by a similar investigation in 2007, this inquiry will examine applications of and increases in the commissions for various banking services: fees for cash withdrawals and certain payments at the teller's window, the wiring of funds (including on-line transactions) and ATM withdrawals. Some of these are the very same fees that the Antitrust Authority had already lowered or eliminated in order to reflect 'upstream' cuts in inter-banking costs for the banking sector deriving from previous Antitrust Authority inquiries.

The current goal of the Antitrust Authority is to understand how competition (in terms of service pricing and transparency issues) could still be so weak in spite of sweeping modifications in the past that should have given a powerful boost to competition in certain aspects of banking.

In response to citizen complaints, this inquiry will also investigate a variety of problems encountered with closing and/or transferring accounts from one bank to another (in terms of the direct and often indirect costs) and making loan transfers in order to clarify the causes and identify potential solutions.

Rome, 25 March 2011