Santander will need to reimburse BRL 79 million for undue charges to customers

Santander signed an agreement with the Central Bank pledging to return approximately R$79 million to customers for improper charges made between January 2014 and February this year. The term of commitment was published in May.

The bank said that “it has already reimbursed more than 90% of the amounts charged and will reach the total within the agreed period”, adding “that it has adopted the necessary measures so that such charges do not occur again”. According to the document, Santander has already returned BRL 64.4 million by September 30, 2021.

The infractions committed by Santander correspond to the violation of rules for charging interest on overdraft accounts and credit card installment operations, in addition to improper charging of fees by individual entrepreneurs and micro-entrepreneurs in operations via Pix.

According to the document, the bank must refund R$ 43.16 million for charging an interest rate on the amount used in the overdraft above the limit stipulated by the monetary authority of 8% per month for individual microentrepreneurs. The infringement was recorded from January 1, 2020 and February 7 of this year and impacted 55,987 customers.

The agreement also provides for the return of BRL 17.65 million for improperly charging a fee from individual entrepreneurs and micro-entrepreneurs for sending funds via Pix between March 1, 2021 and February 4 of this year. There were 268,583 customers affected in this case.

Santander also committed to reimburse BRL 18.3 million to 378,046 customers impacted by wrong calculations in the anticipation of credit card installment operations, considering the invoice closing date instead of the due date. There were 729,369 improper transactions between January 1, 2014 and July 10, 2020.

The deadline given by the BC for full reimbursement was 12 months from the signing of the agreement, signed in May this year. The bank is also obliged to pay R$ 8.05 million in pecuniary contribution, that is, compensation for irregular conduct.

The agreement also establishes that the amounts of refunds must be updated by the variation of the IPCA (Ample National Consumer Price Index), which measures inflation, from the date they were unduly charged until the date of actual return to customers or payment. of the additional pecuniary contribution to the BC.

“If any amounts already returned to customers have not been fully updated in accordance with the first paragraph of this clause, the first party must refund to customers the balance of the remaining update until the date of partial reimbursement, also guaranteeing the adjustment by the IPCA in the remaining period, until the date of the effective return of the respective value to the customer”, says the document.

The agreement also defines that the bank must contact customers affected by improper charges by phone, text message or email to arrange the payment method. Failure to comply with obligations will incur additional charges.