The Consumers’ Foundation yesterday criticized several banks for requiring customers to agree to unfair conditions before granting loans, calling on the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) to look into the matter.
The foundation recently conducted an investigation into the terms of agreement for small-scale consumer loans at 10 banks. The foundation found that many of the banks required customers to agree to unfair terms and conditions before a loan would be granted.
For example, seven of the 10 banks included a clause that stated the customer would forgo his or her right to have 30 days to read through all the terms and conditions of the loan agreement before agreeing to them. Although this could speed up the processing time by finalizing the terms of the loan immediately, the rights of the customer could be harmed if they agreed to the clause because they no longer have the right to exercise their “free look” provision, foundation chairman Hsieh Tien-jen (謝天仁) said.
Seven of the 10 banks did not clearly indicate that the bank would notify the customer in writing when the loan interest rate changed, while two of the remaining three banks failed to mention in the contract whether the customer would be notified when the interest rate changed, exposing customers to unnecessary risk, Hsieh said.
Other unfair terms that were also common included not charging a diminishing penalty for early termination of the loan, not notifying the customer when the bank authorizes another company to recover unpaid debt and requiring the customer to sign a promissory note.
The foundation has provided its report to the FSC and it called on the regulator to look into the matter. It urged the FSC to set requirements for the minimum font size for the text of the contract so that customers would find it easier to read the small print.
The foundation also urged the regulator to step up efforts to examine contracts provided by banks to ensure that consumers’ rights were not being infringed.
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