No special law needed for protection of users of banking services

The initiative of the National Bank of Serbia (NBS) for exclusion of the part that regulates financial services, that is, consumer loans, from the Draft Law on Protection of Consumers has caused a negative reaction of the public. People at NBS explain that, due to specific characteristics of the financial market, these issues should be regulated by a special law, and the final decision on that should be made soon in agreement with the Ministry of Trade.

Economists warn that NBS has been announcing such law over the past few years.

- The regulation of financial services should remain a part of the Law on Protection of Consumers until NBS finally adopts a special law, which is something that institution speaks about for five years now. Nobody will get angry if the Law on Protection of Consumers regulates consumer loans in the transient period. If not, consumers are only left with the option to call NBS and complain - economist Goran Nikolic told daily paper Blic.

Nikolic points out that consumer loans are short-term loans, while the new law should regulate long-term loans, primarily mortgage ones.

- Banks should not be left with the possibility of deciding discretely on increasing interest rates, but only on lowering them. Fees represent a smaller problem because the citizens are mainly familiar with how big they are, but the crediting terms must be clearly indicated in the contract, and not in footnotes - says Nikolic.