'Financial Ombudsman for liquidation': President of UOKiK
23:35
We cannot pretend that the current supervision of consumer protection in the financial market is sufficient. After taking over the competences of the Financial Ombudsman, UOKiK will have better tools to fight the multiplication of irregularities, said Tomasz Chróstny, President of UOKiK.
Taking over the competencies of the Financial Ombudsman by the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) assumes a project by the Ministry of Finance. This proposal is opposed by Financial Ombudsman Mariusz Golecki, who justifies that the change leads to privileges of financial market entities, in particular banks and insurers at the expense of worsening the legal situation of their clients.
The president of the Office, Tomasz Chróstny, does not agree with this assessment, arguing in an interview with PAP that the change will be beneficial for consumers.
"We are watching the financial services market very closely and we can see that there is an exceptionally high number of irregularities in it, both in terms of complex products and services and unfair sales. We are unlikely to find a comparable financial market in Europe where consumers would suffer such huge losses over the last two decades," the head of UOKiK stated.
As he said, in 2015, when the Office of the Financial Ombudsman was established, UOKiK took the position that it would intervene in the event of an infringement of collective consumer interests, not individual cases, but now the assessment of the situation has changed. In his opinion, too many cases remain unresolved today due to the dispersion of competences between the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection and the Financial Ombudsman.
