The banking sector policeman fined the BNP Paribas subsidiary in Reunion Island three million euros for having improperly charged fees to its financially fragile clients.
“BNP Paribas Réunion has been issued a reprimand and a financial penalty of three million euros”, specifies the Prudential Control and Resolution Authority (ACPR) in its decision of November 5.
Fees exceeding regulatory limits
Various grievances were accepted by the authority following a control carried out from July 2019 to January 2020 and the opening of a disciplinary procedure in September 2020. The subsidiary in particular applied costs beyond the regulatory ceilings in case of rejection of check and refusal of direct debit. It also charged its customers fees for all one-day transactions when an unauthorized overdraft was found, without this appearing in its price brochure.
BNP Paribas Réunion did not comply either with “the rules relating to value dates for transactions recorded as debit from its customers’ accounts”. The bank also failed to fulfill its obligation to inform customers at least 14 days before the levying of certain incident costs and did not have an adequate permanent control system concerning the compliance of the costs invoiced to all of them. his clients.
“Of particular gravity”
“The breaches relating to the capping of bank charges, which are directly detrimental to BNP Paribas Réunion clients, are particularly serious”, specifies the ACPR, which notes the corrective measures implemented since the control mission and whose scope and effectiveness “need to be confirmed”.
In July 2020, BNP Paribas Réunion had already been the subject of a report by the Observatory for Banking Inclusion (OIB) of the Banque de France for not having respected the sector’s commitments to fragile clients.