On 7 February, the Italian Competition Authority accepted the commitments presented by Unipol Banca S.p.A. as part of a proceedings to ascertain the absence or ambiguity of the information notice provided to consumers as to the existence, in the bank’s variable rate loan agreements, of minimum interest rate thresholds included under floor clauses (minimum rate value above the spread) and negative Euribor (minimum rate value equal to the spread, so as to render the negative values of the Euribor insignificant in determining the annual nominal interest rate), in relation to the time signing said agreements, prior or subsequent to observing negative Euribor indexing parameter values.

In summary, Unipol Banca’s commitments consist of: 1) with regard to consumers who will sign future variable rate loan agreements with the Bank, which include minimum rate clauses, additions to the pre-contractual and contractual documentation in order to make explicit - including in the denomination of the product - the existence of minimum rates that limit interest rate variability, even in case the algebraic sum of the Euribor indexing and spread parameters is lower; 2) with reference to consumers who already hold variable rate loan agreements with the Bank that are still under depreciation and feature minimum interest rate thresholds, the integration of periodic summary documents to highlight the existence of minimum rate clauses and sending a specific explanatory note to this regard; 3) with reference to consumers who signed variable rate loan agreements in the period between 1 April 2015 to 30 September 2016, still under depreciation, payment of a one-off sum due to the exceptional and unforeseeable continuation of negative Euribor indexing parameters applied to said agreements.

In the light of these commitments to add to and strengthen the information framework provided to consumers, and to retroactively eliminate the consequences of the Bank’s practice that consumers may have suffered, especially those who signed variable rate loan agreements when the Euribor had already been negative for some time, the Authority resolved to accept these commitments without verifying the infringement.

Rome, 16 February 2017