Banks that signed a code of conduct have agreed to voluntarily conform to rules in the code even though Parliament has yet to approve amendments to the Credit Institutions Act necessary for the code to come into effect, a advisor to the Hungarian Bank Association told MTI on Monday.
“Banks regard the code of conduct as binding even though the amended Credit Institutions Act will not take effect on December 1″, senior advisor for the Hungarian Banking Association Janos Muller told MTI.
Thirteen banks, controlling more than 90pc of Hungary’s retail lending market, signed the code of conduct in the middle of September. Since then, a total of 158 banks and other lenders have signed the code.
The code was to have come into force after Parliament approved the necessary amendments to the Credit Institutions Act scheduled to take effect by December 1, but MPs had still not voted on the changes by late Monday.
Finance Ministry spokesman Ferenc Pichler told MTI on Monday that the final vote is scheduled for December 14.
The code of conduct affects information banks provide to borrowers, preparations to be made before loan contracts are signed, management of problem loans, and unilateral changes to contracts and bank fees. Financial market regulator PSZAF can fine signers who breech the code up to HUF 2bn.
Seriously !!
Most bankers wouldn’t spit to give their mothers a slide, what makes you think a code of conduct, voluntary or otherwise, will change the way they really operate.
@JD. Interesting turn of phrase, ‘spit to give one’s mother a slide.’ Where did you get this wonderfully vulgar, phrase from. Or is it translated from another language?
Nope that is a UK phrase Rolrox, although fairly uncommon.
In keeping with the vulgar behaviour that could be attributed to a lot of banks and bankers’ actions.
Very adjacent JD. Only one code of conduct for banks to pursue and that is to treat people with disdain. A balance sheet is more important.
Banks and financial advisers are responsible for the current, world financial debacle.
Credit card companies should be burned at the stake
for their usury – the bunch of Fagans!
@RobertSmith, if we burn the lenders how about also
piling on the people who foolishly overextend
themselves? Neither a borrower or lender be…
Reading ads for loans telling you the THM is 35%, I’ve always wondered that people take this kind of money. These interest rates are ridiculous…
To the Dwarf:What about the banks in Hungary (courtesy of EU directorate) lending more money to those unfortunates who have already “over-extended” themselves?
I mentioned credit card companies “usury”.
Why burn the people for that?
Anyway, I suppose dwarves are self-sufficient entities with small pricks and even smaller brains?
@HenryHobbit, thanks for the most kind compliments.
Viszont. I’m always entertained when people blame
the banks (which most certainly are not blameless)
but don’t criticize their own behaviour. Borrowing
money to buy a home is one thing… we all want a
roof over our heads, but beyond that I have first
hand experience of many friends and acquantainces
getting deep into debt with additional loans,
overdrafts, credit card balances etc… while at the
same time buying living an unnecessarily lavish
lifestyle – second cars, building swimming pools,
etc. Sadly there are many people who don’t
understand the concept of living within their means.
Wolfi, I couldn’t agree more. I thought it was only me reading the small print on bank loan adverts offering 35% interest rates.
In the UK, in the current climate, I believe not only are credit card companies offering less but even come under heavy criticism when they get close to these rates.
But banks doing this!! It is rediculous and a rip off.
So thank you Wolfi for confirming that I wasn’t imagining this, that it was actually real.
And Benny, you are right also. People are very quick to blame the banks for everything but do not acknowledge their part in this credit farce.
In Hungary, however, I would say that the majority of people, even those working in banks, don’t know the difference between a credit card and a debit card, that is about as educated as it gets here when it comes to credit.
So then the problem is twofold, greedy banks encourage credit at rediculous interest rates and people are two uneducated to understand the product they are purchasing.
@JD:
To continue this sad story: My Hungarian wife told me about friends of hers who agreed to loans in Swiss Francs and/or Yen and were absolutely shocked when suddenly the Forint fell and they had to pay back nuch more…
Someone even went so far to speculate on something (I really didn’t understand what it was about) on credit, now he might have to sell his house…
I know that similar things have happened in Germany, greedy bankers enticing “ordinary people” to speculate – with money that they don’t have…
You can look at this from two sides:
a) the banks entice people who don’t know any
better to take out loans in foreign currencies,
tempting them with low interest rates and not
warning them of the risks if exchange rates
worsen.
Or, b) the banks offer a range of options and the
consumer can decide what they want, but many
people take out foreign currency loans without
educating themselves correctly on the risks or
without failing to factor in those risks into
their ability to repay.
Who is the guilty party? I feel the biggest issue
is that the common people are unable to evaluate
risk correctly and fail to calculate the effect of
exchange rate movements. But then, there is the
principle of Caveat Emptor.
I would even add further to this Benny that Banks themselves are unable to evaluate the risk correctly. Look at the last year if you need proof of that.
What does that say? That the average Joe (or Jozsi) on the street has about as much idea about what will happen when speculating as the bank promoting the speculation. The difference is, the banker wears a tie and a nice suit so we think they know.
Even worse still, they think they know too !
I know exactly what the future will bring – it will not be what all those forecasters are saying, whether it’s bankers, politicians or other high payed idiots…
The end of the world is coming in 2012, anyhow,
isn’t it? So don’t worry about the repayments, just
hang in there…
Benny. I agree with you about people and their bad habits of mismanaging money because they want better homes, and new cars, and expensive clothes etc. But this is normal in the current, consumer-driven, times. Shopping malls and supermarkets are, for me, anathema. Full of junk and useless products that only appeal to the one-brain cell idiots that think shopping sprees can change their lives.
Yes. It can get them deeper in debt. Then they fall into the hands of the ever-ready, avaricious, and unscrupulous, credit card companies with their exorbitant interest rates..i.e. “usury”!