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The meeting was arranged by the Financial Users Association of Spain (ASUFIN)
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Patricia Suárez, president of ASUFIN, is promoting the exchange of information between Consumers Association in Europe
Four activists, from Italy and Poland, affected by the FX Loans arrived yesterday at the headquarters of ASUFIN (Spain). The purpose of the seminar was the exchange of information about the present situation of the three countries against the FX Loans. CHF Loans must be considered a european problem. British, German and Austrian banks have placed these products in the eastern and southern countries of Europe and therefor all the countries are inherently connected. The weakest countries of the European Union are the ones that are suffering the consequences.
The problem is that the differences are significant for understanding how the processes are being developed in the different countries. The seminar started with the Italian representatives claiming that Italians are not seeking justice commonly. The victims in Italy are not only going to court individually, but the amount that are appealing to this sort of justice is very low. Banks, as they also did initially in Spain, are using these two facts against the citizens. Since many are not fighting, they are not united. Banks claim that multi currency mortgages have not affected the Italian Bank users of these products. Class action in neither of the countries work well. There are too many procedural problems, and the law is not made to help this process. The Italian activists complain that during the process any minimum problem paralyzes the whole process. Justice is extremely slow.
The judicial system in Poland is not supporting the consumers
The Polish activist, Tomasz Sadlik came along with his lawyer Mariusz Korpalski, also specialist in FX Loans. Tomasz explained how the CHF Loans are in Poland and his personal case. He explains that the judges agree that the clauses are abusive, but in the same judgment, they state its impossible to reverse the situation, and do nothing with the clause. When this happens, instead of supporting the affected(they do not even demand to be completely, but al least partially), they directly reject them. If the clause is ineffective, there must at least be a partial compensation. This is way in Poland they are fighting so strong for the new law project, since the judicial system in Polonia is not supporting whom it should. They are far away from the solution they consider just, but in 5 years, thanks to uniting the population that suffers these products and he activists, they have achieved a lot, for example, a uniform case law.
Italy appeals to the European Union to solve the CHF Loans problem
Italy is having serious problems to unite its people, and therefor if you consider that nationally justice is not being where, we must help them find justice in our common ground: Europe. The european normative must be the same for all. Barclays took advantage that the national banks were rejecting the families that economically were weakest, or those that had a single salary (the vast majority were single parents), when placing mortgages. They created an ever more dangerous and complex product, also known as multi-currency mortgages, that is not even considered in their country a “financial derivative product”, and therefor they need to find support and information on how the other european judges, such as in Spain, are defending the customers and not the banks.
The commonalities between the italian victims and the spanish and polish ones are many. The three representatives of the mentioned countries believe that the only way to continue strong in this fight is staying united. This union must be first in a national sense and then by unifying causes and fighting for a common one. This is why it is so important these meetings where Patricia Suárez, the President of ASUFIN, and many other activists, wants to promote an European Association for Consumers of Financial Products. Justice must be found in national or international grounds.
