Poland's antitrust watchdog reviews rules for assessing consumer creditworthiness
Poland's antitrust and consumer protection regulator UOKiK is reviewing the rules for assessing consumers' creditworthiness and their impact on the terms and conditions of lending, the authority said in a press statement. The investigation is looking into whether competition in the banking sector may have been restricted.
"We have been analysing the terms and conditions of creditworthiness assessment for several months, as we have suspicions that the BIK [Polish credit information office - MI ed.] scoring model may limit competition between banks," said the head of UOKiK Tomasz Chrostny, quoted in the press release.
"A rational consumer wishing to obtain the most favourable conditions for a mortgage loan, for example, submits credit enquiries to several banks. Often, however, the consumers do not realise that each subsequent enquiry can lower their credit score, and this regardless of whether they have already received a credit decision at one of the banks," he added.
UOKiK said that in the initiated proceedings, it is investigating whether such a scoring model has the character of a restrictive practice and whether, by means of it, there is no coordination and anti-competitive exchange of information on customer enquiries between entities operating on the financial market.
"The investigation is conducted in the case and not against specific entities. If suspicions are confirmed, the head of UOKiK may initiate antitrust proceedings, which may result in a sanction of up to 10 percent of turnover in the event of a finding of restrictive practices," the regulator added.
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