OREANDA-NEWS. July 14, 2008. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) held a meeting of the Expert Council on Protection of Competition on the Market of Financial services and the Expert Council on Unfair Competition. Members of the Expert Councils discussed the practice of credit organizations on informing their clients (sole traders, and physical and legal persons) on changing the rates for operating the accounts, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

The session looked at the preliminary conclusions on the survey of credit organizations, conducted by FAS Russia at the beginning of 2008 to determine the state of competition on the market of banking services, related to opening and managing accounts of sole traders, and physical and legal persons.

The existing practice of informing the clients shows that the timeframe and methods of clients notifications, applied by credit organizations, may be insufficient for proper client awareness. In its turn, it can entail clients' financial losses should the rates increase, for instance, due to a lack of time to change a credit organization or to give details of the new accounts, opened in different banks, to their counteragents.

In particular, the following suggestions were made during exchange of the opinions: to send personal notifications to each client on changing the rates for operating the accounts, introduce the minimum timeframe for notifying the clients on the changes, for instance, at least 30-45 before new rates become valid, as well as allow possibility of reconsidering the rates once a year, at the specified period, without personally notifying the clients.

Summing up the discussion, a decision was made to devise proposals for introducing amendments to the normative legal acts on formalizing the timeframe and methods of informing the clients of credit organizations on changing the rates for operating the accounts, and to forward the proposals to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation for its approval.

Expert Councils also discussed the actions of "М2М Private Bank" OJSC, which in a unilateral manner significantly increased the commission for operating clients accounts. Expert Councils inspected whether such actions comply with just and fair business practices of credit organizations.

The issue was put to a vote, and by a simple majority vote Members of the Expert Councils recommended FAS Russia to initiate a case against "М2М Private Bank" OJSC under Article 14 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition" (forbidding unfair competition) and proposed to continue investigating the case.