Banks do not want to give Poles money. Officials intervene
Banks in Poland are reluctant to refund Poles money for unauthorized transactions on their accounts. The case is being looked at by the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, and the banks’ excuses include, among other things, incorrect translation of European regulations.
The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection recently initiated proceedings against several Polish banks. Officials decided to look at how they deal with unauthorized transactions and the resulting refunds to the customer’s account. The problem is big because banks interpret the regulations differently and cover themselves, among other things, with an incorrect translation of the European directive – Business Insider reports.
Unauthorized transactions in banks
The main bone of contention is the different interpretation of the regulations. According to banks, providing all the necessary data to complete a transaction, even if it has been stolen, means that the transaction has been authorized. For this reason, many complaints are rejected. The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection has a different opinion.
Banks reject customer complaints regarding unauthorized transactions, citing that the system provided the data necessary to complete the transfer, i.e. the transaction was – in their opinion – correctly authenticated. However, they do not take into account that the transaction could have been performed by someone else without the consumer’s consent and knowledge. As a result, many people may give up pursuing their rights.
– we read in the announcement of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection from February.
The Office also points out that banks equate authentication with transaction authorization, which is not correct. Meanwhile, financial institutions defend themselves that the European directive was incorrectly translated.
This concerns an error in the translation of the directive into Polish, where the word “authentication” was incorrectly translated as “authorization”. Therefore, in most countries, payment service providers must demonstrate that the authentication process was correct and that no other technical obstacles or irregularities occurred on the bank’s side, while in Poland the payment service provider is required to prove authorization, i.e. the customer’s willingness to make a payment transaction, which is impossible. It is worth adding here that in many EU countries, authorization is also understood as a formal confirmation of the authentication process, because the authentication process is nothing more than the externalization of the client’s will.
– explains the Polish Bank Association in response to a question from Business Insider.
The Financial Ombudsman does not agree with this position. In his opinion, Art. 45 section 2 of the Payment Services Act clearly states that indicating the registered use of a payment instrument is not sufficient evidence that the transaction has been authorized by the user.
According to applicable regulations, banks have one business day to refund money in the event of an unauthorized transaction. There are two exceptions to this rule. The first concerns a situation where the consumer applies for a refund later than 13 months after the transaction. The second is a reasonable suspicion of fraud on the part of the consumer, about which the bank must inform the police or prosecutor’s office.
