Slovak News Back to the news
Bankers: Government Ignoring Memorandum on Co-operation With Banks
Thursday 14 January 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, January 14 (TASR) - The Government doesn't respect the proper legislative process and the memorandum on co-operation signed with the Slovak Banking Association (SBA), said SBA president Igor Vida on Thursday, referring to last-moment changes made to the law on consumer credit that was approved by the Government on Wednesday.
Bankers have reservations towards the amendment that was added by the Finance Ministry to the law shortly before the government session without the issue being discussed with bank representatives. Based on the proposal, Slovak banks would have to introduce a new product in their portfolios - a package of basic services for "ordinary clients" that would be identical at all banks.
According to Finance Minister Jan Pociatek, the new measure will make it easy for people to compare banks and provide easy access to current accounts. He expects that the introduction of the products will reduce the prices of bank products on the market, as the package will be standardised and will thus create competition between individual banks.
According to Vida, this doesn't have a parallel anywhere in the world. In addition, it counts on the free and unlimited drawing of money from cashpoints abroad and various other obligations that are unacceptable and violate the competitive environment and business policies of commercial banks.
If the law passes in Parliament in the version proposed by the Government, banks will turn to the European Commission and Constitutional Court.
All rights reserved. Any publishing or further dissemination of press releases and photographs from TASR's resources without TASR's prior written approval constitutes a violation of the Copyrights Act.
