Question 9449 — consumption

Summary

If the general principle is that of pricing freedom for credit and payment institutions which determine the price and conditions of offering their services according to their commercial strategy, the Government is particularly attentive to the issue of banking fees applied to consumers. It should be noted that certain costs are thus capped by regulation. These are incident costs such as intervention commissions in application of article L. 312-1-3 of the monetary and financial code implemented by articles R. 312-4-1 and R. 312-4-2 of the same code. Bank charges in the event of rejection of a payment (by check or other) on an unfunded account are also capped, depending on the case, at 30 or 50 euros (articles D. 131-25 and D.133-6 of the monetary and financial code). Furthermore, it is specified in the 2nd paragraph of the article L. 312-1-3 of the aforementioned code that people in financially fragile situations benefit from access to a specific offer at reduced costs likely to limit payment incidents. Beyond these prices already set by law, the path of legal regulation of the prices of other banking services is not the one that seems to be favored. A price limitation could be quickly compensated by the increase in the price of a other banking service, which would be just as detrimental for the customer and would in turn burden the purchasing power of our fellow citizens. A pricing policy favorable to the consumer lies above all in increased competition between establishments and facilitated banking mobility. The Government is thus fully committed to the strengthening, carried out in recent years, of price transparency, in order to allow customers to compare bank offers and choose the bank that best meets their expectations. The exercise of this choice has been facilitated since 2017 by the banking mobility assistance service adopted within the framework of Law No. 2015-990 of August 6, 2015 for growth, activity and equal economic opportunities. In this regard, the Financial Sector Advisory Committee (CCSF) established a positive assessment in July 2018 on the implementation of this service. In addition, the Minister of the Economy and Finance, aware that the banking integration of all customers is an essential factor in social cohesion and equal opportunities, brought together on September 3, 2018, the Governor of the Banque de France, the President of the CCSF and the members of the Executive Committee of the French Banking Federation. It emerged from this meeting that French banks are committed to limiting fees payment banks and account operating irregularities for people benefiting from the specific offer and will continue their efforts to disseminate this offer through communications actions, in particular through partnerships with aid and support associations. The minister called for a capping of all bank charges for all beneficiaries of the specific offer at 20 euros per month and 200 euros per year. Finally, following the recommendations of the CCSF in its report on banking incident fees, it was decided to strengthen the action of the banking profession in the prevention and limitation of banking incidents for all customers. This will include offering consumers the possibility of choosing the date of the main recurring direct debits in order to better control the monthly evolution of their cash flow.  Furthermore, banks have undertaken to provide their customers with an alert system on the situation of their account (for example by sending an SMS).

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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