AGCM

The Italian Competition Authority (ICA) has sanctioned Veneto Banca for a total 5 million Euros for having put in place two unfair commercial practices, consisting respectively of having conditioned the disbursement of loans to the purchase of bank shares by consumers as well as of inducing them to open a current account at the bank when applying for a loan.
In particular, the Bank has conditioned the disbursement of loans to the purchase of bank shares by consumers, with the aim of placing them within consumers. These practices were aimed at the recapitalisation of the Bank, which began in the second half of 2012 and developed throughout 2013 and 2014. The Bank's capitalisation requirements prevailed over the interests of its customers.
In particular, to be provided with ‘shareholder loans’ reserved for the Bank’s shareholders, consumers have been required to purchase a minimum package of 200 shares, which exceeds the minimum purchase required to become shareholders in the same Bank (equal to 100 shares), and not to sell their share packages for certain periods on pain of loss of the financial conditions for the loan. Moreover, the financial conditions of these shareholder loans have been found to be negatively compensated by the costs associated with the share packages on which purchase they were conditional.
In addition, when the consumer signed the loan agreement, they were also induced to open an account at the Bank to manage the loan, as this was presented as an essential requirement for the loan to be granted.
The ICA founds these practices to considerably limit the freedom of choice of consumers on loan products. The prospect of being able to obtain a loan on particularly favourable terms only by subscribing for the Bank's shares appears to be an undue conditioning and a practice aimed at inducing the consumer to make a commercial decision that they would not otherwise have made. In the case of ‘shareholder loans’ in particular, such undue conditioning was achieved by presenting consumers the purchase of minimum share packages as an essential requirement to access these loans; it should also be noticed that these shares are difficult to negotiate and liquidate because the Bank is not listed, and they could not be disinvested for certain periods, on pain of losing of the financial conditions for the loan. In addition, Veneto Banca, taking advantage of its contractual position, imposed the consumers that applied for loans to also open bank accounts linked to the same loans, thus establishing a practice that bound loans to bank accounts, which is prohibited by the Consumer Code.

Rome, 25 May 2017