Office of Competition and Consumer Protection

Most banks stopped charging consumers with additional fees for coin deposits - this is the result of UOKiK’s investigation of standard contracts. The President of the Office issued four decisions concerning such practices

Investigations of standard contracts are conducted by UOKiK at a regular basis and they cover many sectors of the economy. They aim to protect weaker market participants against unfair practices of enterprises. An investigation of contracts used by 20 banks which ended in February 2008 showed to what degree the rights of consumers making deposits and withdrawals at bank cash desk were respected. The Office had reservations concerning mainly the collection of additional fees for making coin deposits. A consumer who wanted to deposit coins to his/her account at a bank cash desk had to pay an extra commission. These fees were not collected in the case of banknote deposits.

Lately, the President of UOKiK issued four decisions concerning such practices. Lucas Bank was ordered to pay a fine and cease the applied practice, as it continued to collect a commission for coin deposits. At the same time, UOKiK found that Bank Ochrony Środowiska, GETIN Bank and Bank Zachodni WBK ceased the contested conduct. What is more, proceedings concerning similar practices are now under way against ING Bank Śląski. After UOKiK’s decision of October 2007, Bank PEKAO SA ceased to collect charges for coin deposits.

In the opinion of the Office, banks do not have any right to charge additional fees for depositing coins. As it was found, the commission ranged from PLN 3 to 20 or a minimum of 0.5% of the sum paid in. Coins are a legal tender in the territory of Poland equally to banknotes and no fees is charged for deposits made in “paper money”, the same should apply to those made in coins. Such practices violate economic interests of consumers, who suffer financial loss in consequence of the unjustified differentiation of payment instruments. Moreover, such activities of the banks contribute to “spoiling money” as they lead to coins being treated as an inferior payment instrument.

In the course of UOKiK’s investigations it was also found that Bank Ochrony Środowiska and Fortis Bank levied charges for depositing unarranged banknotes or coins, i.e. not sorted according to denominations, not put in the same direction and not banded into packs of 1000 pieces of the same denomination each. In the opinion of the Office, this practice violates good trading practices and is inconsistent with the banking law, which obliges banks to count and sort the notes and coins deposited to bank accounts. Thanks to UOKiK’s intervention, the institutions no longer apply this practice.

The Office also contested a situation when due to the lack of enough foreign currency to pay out a demanded sum from a currency account, the bank paid out the remainder in Polish zloty and collected a commission for that, which was a practice applied by Bank BPH. The institution conceded that the conduct infringed consumer interests and undertook to cease it.

The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection would like to remind consumers that in the case of any problems, they may approach local consumer ombudsmen. Also the Banking Ombudsman may help resolve disputes with banks concerning financial claims for the failure to perform or undue performance of a service.

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