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Loans conditioned to insurance policies, preliminary investigation for alleged unfair commercial practices on Agos, Findomestic and Cardif


PRESS RELEASE


Following to a complaint from IVASS too, the Italian Competition Authority has launched two investigation procedures for alleged unfair commercial practices towards:
• the financial company Agos Ducato S.p.A. and the insurance company, operating in Life Insurance, Cardif Assurance Vie s.a.;
• the Findomestic Bank S.p.A. credit institute and the insurance company, operating in Non-Life Insurance, Cardif Assurances Risques Divers s.a.

Two independent behaviors adopted by the above-mentioned financing companies and insurance companies are the objects of this investigation.

According to the allegations, Agos Ducato S.p.A. and Findomestic Bank S.p.A. would have in fact extended personal loans, in favor of the consumers, conditioned to the subscription of insurance policies with no connection to the financing, realizing a “binding practice” between bank and insurance products, violating articles 24 and 25, para. 1, letter a), of the Consumer Code. This behavior considerably limits the freedom of choice of the consumers in relation to the financing products in issue, in the measure in which the companies propose to the consumers – who want to request loans – that they can only access them by submitting to the above-mentioned insurance policies, which have nothing to do with the financing, implementing a forced match between the two types of products.

Cardif Assurance Vie s.a. and Cardif Assurances Risques Divers s.a. have implemented behaviors that are contrary to professional diligence and suitable to falsify the behavior of the consumer, in violation of art. 20, para. 2, of the Consumer Code. These companies, even having acknowledged the forced match between their own insurance policies and the financing, provided respectively by Agos Ducato S.p.A. and Findomestic Bank S.p.A., have refused the reimbursement requested by consumers during early repayment of the financing, of the amounts object of the insurance policies in question, motivating the refusal with the absence of connection between the two types of products: in doing that, the two companies would not have activated any control measures, concerning the forced matches, towards the financial institutions and, in a general way, of monitoring and control of the placement modes of the insured products in issue.

In order to assess these behaviors, today, April 18th, 2018, the Officers of the Italian Competition Authority have carried out a series of inspections in the offices of the afore-mentioned companies, with the help of the Special Antitrust Unit of the Guardia di Finanza.

Rome, 18 April 2018