Its immediate convocation Standing Committee on Economic Affairs her Parliament asks the SYRIZAin order for the competent Minister of National Economy and Finance to inform the members of the Commission of the intention of legislative intervention in order to reduce the amount of bank commissions and of the required actions in order to reduce the difference between the interest rate on deposits and the interest rate on loans.

With the letter, which is addressed to the Speaker of the Parliament and signed by all the members of the Standing Committee on Economic Affairs, it is noted that the possibility of regulating the amount of bank commissions exists given that also with the provision of article 64 of Law 5108 (A’ 65/2.5.2024) an attempt was made to reduce the burden on professionals from the increased fees in the daily transactions of small financial items worth up to 10 euros.

And the commercial policy of the banks, without timely government intervention and regulation, has historically demonstrated that it works against households and very small, small and medium-sized enterprises. To this end, the conclusion of the Competition Commission’s audit from 20.12.2023 regarding the exorbitant fees of the banks for the services provided to the citizens (B’ 2432/24.04.2024) also advocates.

The Competition Commission found a violation of articles 1 of Law 3959/2011 and 101 of the TFEU by imposing fines on the Banks: 1. Piraeus, 2. Ethniki, 3. Alpha Bank, 4. Eurobank €), 5. Attica Bank and also the Hellenic Union of Banks (EET) while, at the same time, obliged them to reduce from 1.1.2024 the amount of the commission for withdrawing cash from ATMs using cards issued by another institution.

Of course, EET with its response documents to questions submitted by the official opposition since 2020 assured regarding the issue of banking transactions that it is never involved in the pricing policy of its Member Banks, continuing that the promotion of healthy and free competition in the financial sector constitutes its statutory purpose, while arguing for the comparatively low fees of Greek banks. As a result, the EET was disproved and the high fees of the banks as a result of their participation in prohibited practices and collusions were decided to be limited after the lapse of four years, i.e. not in time, with the citizens shouldering the excessive burdens all this time.

With reference to the large difference between interest rates on deposits and loans according to the Bank of Greece’s June 2024 Press Release of September 3, 2024, the weighted average interest rate on new deposits remained almost unchanged at 0.57%, while the corresponding interest rate on new of loans rose to 5.78% with the spread between new deposits and loans widening to 5.21 percentage points. The average weighted interest rate of all existing deposits (including one-day deposits) remained at a low level, amounting to 0.53%. It is clear that in addition to the consequences of the energy and inflationary crisis, the reduction of purchasing power and real disposable income, households and small and medium-sized enterprises are also seeing their deposit accounts run dry.

The letter is signed by:

Mamoulakis Haris

Gerovasili Olga

Giannoulis Christos

George Karameros

Kokkalis Vassilis

Malama Sunday

Ekaterini Notopoulou

Pappas Nikolaos

Ioannis Sarakiotis