European Commission report criticizes "opaque" bank fees

According to a report on retail financial services by the European Commission, there are widespread problems with the way banks inform and advise their customers.

Specific issues include hard to understand information, opaque banking fees, counseling problems and low switching rates. The report describes pricing structures for current accounts as "extremely opaque, making it impossible for consumers to know how much they are paying and to compare different offers". For 66% of banks surveyed, bank fees were so unclear that experts compiling the report needed additional explanatory contacts with the bank to find the real costs of an account. Austria, France, Italy and Spain ranked very poorly in terms of transparency and are among the most expensive countries for banking accounts.

The EU market is fragmented, which makes it hard for consumer to take advantage of the Internal Market. Only 9% of EU consumers switched current accounts for the two years 2007-2008.

EU Consumer Commissioner Meglena Kuneva said: "Retail bankers are letting consumers down. There is widespread evidence that basic consumer principles are being violated with problems going from complex pricing to hidden charges and information that is unclear and incomplete. Banks need to put their house in order with a culture change in the way they treat customers. And Member State Authorities need to fulfil their obligation to enforce EU consumer laws. "

Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy said: "This consumer market survey shows the difficulties that consumers face in their dealings with retail financial products and services. The Commission is determined to combat those problems. That means imposing transparency with understandable and comparable information and setting the guidelines for conducting business."

• Romanian banks rank below the average in terms of transparency

Romanian banks are perceived as having a transparency below the average, according to the EU study, in terms of fees charged in the case of basic bank accounts. More than 70% of the banks included in the study had to provide additional information or to clarify the information they had available on their websites. In terms of payment instruments, Romania is one of the countries where consumers favor manual payments (90% of consumers).

Romania ranks next to last in the EU in terms of banking transactions per individual adults.

An Eurobarometer poll of 2008 showed that in Romania, 33% of consumers are having difficulty in comparing banking offers for current accounts. Just 10% of consumers have switched their current accounts, even though 33% of them say that they found cheaper alternatives these past two years.