The Bank of Portugal will present to the Government a proposal to modify the decree-law that regulates the activity of credit intermediariesa sector that is experiencing strong expansion and that the regulator considers needs “more effective” supervision that “gets where it needs to go”, for the “defense of the client.”
The announcement was made by Francisca Guedes de Oliveira, member of the board of directors of the Bank of Portugal, in an interview with the newspaper Público. The administrator confessed that, according to current legislation, controlling the almost six thousand credit intermediaries that have emerged in recent years is a “completely Herculean task.”
Admitting that “There may be bias in the advice of credit intermediaries.”, warns the administrator that In 2025 there will be “a very big focus” in this activity.
According to the most recent data from the Bank of Portugal, corresponding to 2023, around 45% of consumer loans pass through a credit intermediary. “In housing credit, the data is older, from 2021, taken from the Credit Responsibility Center, and was 16%,” adds the person in charge.
These are data from 2021, and perhaps they are underestimating the current reality, but, although it has grown a lot, it is difficult for me to believe that it has reached 70%,” said the president of the National Association of Authorized Credit Intermediaries. same newspaper, says Francisca Guedes de Oliveira.
The changes that may come “have to do, above all, with transparency and clarity in the relationship, that is, with the obligation to present all proposals from lenders [bancos] to clients, which, at this time, is not an obligation, to guarantee absolutely unequivocally that what is presented to individuals are proposals,” said Francisca Guedes de Oliveira.
Another “important thing is referencing,” which “aims to make very clear the rules by which a Credit Intermediary guides the client towards a specific product or service,” says the BdP administrator. “Taking into account that the ICs are paid through commissions from the entities, we want to ensure that there is transparency in the relationship, clarity and defense of the consumer’s interest, that is, how it adapts to their profile and meets their needs,” he adds.
Source: Observadora
