UOKiK submits to court over FX-mortgages at mBank

The Consumer Protection Authority (UOKiK) has for the second time struck down a contractual clause in some existing mortgage loans of commercial lender mBank, the watchdog informed on Friday. "Contract clauses that too vaguely indicate the grounds for changing interest rates are prohibited, as are those used to establish the amount of mortgage loans indexed to the swiss franc and the principal and interest payments," UOKiK submitted to the court. The loans are given in Polish zloty, but the capital is calculated in francs and functions as the basis for establishing the instalment amount and credit. The amount of the monthly payments is given in Swiss francs, but they are paid in Polish zloty after converting to CHF using an exchange rate established by the bank. As a result, consumers were not able to predict when and by how much the bank may increase the instalment loan, or check the legitimacy of the bank’s activities, the watchdog explained. In the previous clause in August, UOKiK stated that "mBank set discretionary margins on FX-mortgages, opening the door for those loans to be nullified." In April, the watchdog launched proceedings against Getin Noble Bank and Credit Agricole Bank Polska over the CHF-based mortgage loans.