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A need for better advice on financial products, greater demands on instant loan firms and openness regarding the mortgage rate. These are some of the conclusions in Finansinspektionen’s new consumer protection report presented today at FI’s Consumer Protection Day.
Finansinspektionen (FI) has previously proposed a ban on commissions paid when entering an insurance agreement, known as up-front commissions. FI now thinks a more comprehensive commission ban is required to resolve the conflicts of interest between advisors and consumers that commissions create.
Recent tendencies on the instant loan market are cause for concern, with firms with dubious business methods putting consumers at a risk and, at worst, pushing consumers into debt traps. As of 1 July 2014, instant loan firms will be under FI’s supervision, something that FI has requested for several years. This enables FI to raise demands on the firms and intervene when they are not following the rules.
The consumers often have an information disadvantage in relation to financial services and a mortgage is often the households largest economic commitment There is therefore a great need for increased openness regardingthe mortgage rate. FI now continues to works on preparing rules that involve an obligation for the banks to report the actual mortgage rates that customers pay on average, and the factors that are of significance to the mortgage rates offered by the bank.
The Consumer Protection Day will be held at the Musikaliska concert hall, Nybrokajen 11, Stockholm, between 9 a.m. and 12 noon, the 15th of May.
Martin Andersson, Director General and Malin Omberg, Executive Director of Consumer Protection, will be available for questions from the media between 10 a.m. and 10.45 a.m.
