Have consumer rights been infringed due to the merger of the BPH and Pekao banks? This is going to be established by the President of Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, Marek Niechciał. The Office initiated an explanatory proceeding into the matter.

The President of UOKiK initiated an ex officio explanatory proceeding with relation to media reports and complaints from customers of the two merging banks - leading financial institutions on the Polish market. The President of the Office will check whether consumer rights have been violated as a result of the division of BPH and the takeover of a part of its rights and obligations by Pekao.

The complaints received by the Office state that the existing customers of BPH might have been unreliably informed about the consequences of the transaction and their transfer to Pekao. The Office has also doubts as to the provision of information relating to the changes in the functioning of some of the products of the newly created bank, before they were merged with the ones offered by BPH.

Moreover, UOKiK is going to check whether in the process of transferring customer data from BPH’s to Pekao’s computer system there have been errors in the settlement of transactions.

If the charges are proven, according to the existing regulations, the President of UOKiK may initiate proper administrative proceeding concerning the infringement of collective consumer interests and as a result of it - order the company concerned to abandon the challenged practice and impose a fine up to 10% of its last year's revenues.

Additional information:
Małgorzata Cieloch, Spokesperson for UOKiK
Pl. Powstańców Warszawy 1, 00-950 Warszawa
Tel. (+48 22) 827 28 92, 55 60 106, 55 60 430
faks (+48 22) 826 11 86
E-mail [SCODE]bWNpZWxvY2hAdW9raWsuZ292LnBs[ECODE]