Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1028264
7 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 16 SEPTEMBER 2018 NEWS Call for Tenders ERDF 02.035 CONvErGE (Connected eGovernment) The Office of the Permanent Secretary (Strategy & Implementation) within the Office of the Prime Minister would like to notify the launch of the following tender: CT 3209/2018: Implementation Support Services for the Corporate Financial Management Solution and Reviews of Subsidiary IT Systems for the Government of Malta The deadline for submission of tenders is Tuesday, 2 nd October 2018 at 9.30 am CEST. Tender documents may be obtained through the E-tenders website: https://www.etenders.gov.mt. Operational Programme I - European Structural and Investment Funds 2014-2020 "Fostering a competitive and sustainable economy to meet our challenges" Project part-financed by the European Regional Development Fund Co-financing rate: 80% European Union; 20% National Funds DAVID HUDSON A mystery shopping exercise into Maltese banks by the fi- nancial regulator has found that most banks operating in Malta and Gozo are in breach of EU rules on opening bank ac- counts, and had even discrimi- nated against customers based on their nationality. The Malta Financial Services Authority found that custom- ers seeking to open a bank ac- count in one of several branches it surveyed, rarely do so with sufficient knowledge of the vari- ous products available. But the banks have been, in most cases, unable to provide the customers with adequate information and in some cases, discriminated against foreign customers. A number of MFSA officials posed as customers and visited many branches of all the dif- ferent credit institutions across Malta and Gozo, to assess the adequacy of information pro- vided to customers and how banks conducted themselves. In all these counts, MFSA found that most branches were below par and conducted their service outside the terms of EU legislation. The MFSA said that custom- ers were never provided with information about the types of bank accounts they were eligible for. It was only when customers insisted that this was provided. Foreign customers were also immediately directed elsewhere to specific branches within the banks to help them with their queries. In most cases, the customer had to insist more than once to be provided with any form of written information on the dif- ferent bank accounts on offer. In most cases, the response was dismissive, with one par- ticular case where a customer was told to access this informa- tion on Google. This was effectively a breach of the EU's Payment Services Directive, which stipulates that a customer must be provided, in good time before any contrac- tual obligation, all the informa- tion and conditions of the ser- vices upon which he can make an informed decision. In several branches, repre- sentatives "exhibited limited knowledge when replying to re- quests". "They had difficulty explain- ing, among other things, differ- ences between a savings account and a current account and there were instances where it was in- dicated that these were synony- mous. Information provided to the same customer who visited different branches of the same bank was also inconsistent and many times, incorrect." And although European Bank- ing Authority guidelines say that distributors should have the appropriate expertise and capability when explaining characteristics and risks of a product to consumers, this was not met in most branches. "With respect to customers who were non-EU members resident in Malta, bank staff ex- hibited an especially detached conduct in most cases. Prod- ucts to these customers were presented in different ways, even within the same branch, and in some cases, an adequate product was not presented at all when faced with a non-EU cus- tomer," the MFSA said. Even when customers asked for a copy of the tariff of charg- es, this was not forthcom- ing and customers were told that this was unavailable even though EU rules say customers should always be made aware of what charges they might in- cur before purchasing a bank- ing product. Following the exercise, MFSA said that it hopes that credit institutions will follow up with appropriate remedial action, es- pecially because the service ten- dered by the majority of these institutions was in breach of legislation. dhudson@mediatoday.com.mt Opening a bank account MFSA finds woeful standards inside Maltese banks it visited "They had difficulty explaining, among other things, differences between a savings account and a current account and there were instances where it was indicated that these were synonymous"