ANPC investigates cases of violation of competition legislation by commercial banks

The National Agency for Protection of Competition (ANPC) is examining a complaint about lending transparency. As some of the commercial banks do not publish complete information about the charged commissions on their official websites, the clients believe that the banks use higher rates of interest than the ones announced when the lending contract is signed, the ANPC director Viorelia Carare told a news conference. ““We do not rule out that the banks make the commissions charged public, but they do not tell their clients where they can find the given information. Anyway, we will examine and clarify the situation. Under the legislation on competition, the presentation of incomplete or incorrect information about a product offered to the consumers is considered a violation,” Carare said. The ANPC director also said that they established that some of the banks charge additional commissions for accepting payments for public utilities. “The commission is 1-1.5 lei per bill. Some of the banks, and we will determine which ones, charge commissions from such service providers as Termocom, Moldtelecom etc. This is a violation of the legal interests of the consumers. We will continue the investigation and make the results known in the near future,” Viorelia Carare said. The ANCP is a permanent central public administration authority that promotes the state policy on the protection of competition, limits and contains anti-competition activities, monitors the implementation of the legislation in the field.