On Thursday, March 15, 2018, a roundtable discussion on the topic “Consumer protection in banking contracts” was held at the Zagreb School of Economics and Management. Keynote speakers discussed questions regarding consumer protection in banking contracts and pointed out issues which are already resolved and questions that require further elaboration, while they concluded by proposing measures that could improve consumer protection in the Republic of Croatia.
Keynote speakers were Helena Majić, Denis Smajo, Marija Duljković and Goran Vojković, PhD. The event was attended by a large number of guests and media representatives.
The host, Helena Majić, informed the participants about the current challenges and pointed out the relevant laws of Croatian legislation and European Union directives and explained the most recent judgments of domestic and European courts related to the topic.
Denis Smajo of the Association “Franak” presented the goals and activities of the association and highlighted the greatest achievements since the foundation of the association, which has about 30,000 members, and presented to the participants that taking out loans in kuna is the best option for loans when looking at the currency risk. He noted that there are still at least 70,000 Croatian citizens who have loans in Swiss francs and that despite the collective lawsuit, citizens are forced to privately sue the bank.
Banking and Finance expert Marija Duljković pointed out that total deposits with commercial banks, credit institutions, including deposit money and savings and time deposits amounted to HRK 273.2 billion in December 2017, out of which total savings and time deposits in foreign and domestic currencies amounted to HRK 199.3 billion. On the other hand, the total placements of banks to households and consumers by the end of 2017 amounted to HRK 114.54 billion, while non-financial corporations or companies totaled HRK 81.77 billion.
Goran Vojkovic, PhD, presented the problem of digitization and an inappropriate legal framework governing issues of electronic documents and electronic signatures. He also referred to the protection of personal data and announced the enhancement of protection regulation by the new Personal Data Protection Act which has entered into force.
