Financial institutions fined for overcharging consumers

The Ministry of Trade announced that, as a result of its inspections, it has imposed fines totaling 3 billion 184 million 471 thousand 852 lira on financial institutions that collected excessive fees, expenses, and commissions from consumers.

The statement from the Ministry recalled that an investigation was launched into non-interest fees, expenses, and commissions charged by financial institutions to consumers in order to protect consumer interests.

The statement, which provided details on the inspections conducted by Ministry inspectors, included the following: "It has been determined that financial institutions caused consumer grievances through practices such as charging excessive fees for EFT, wire transfers, FAST, precious metal and international fund transfers, the use of other financial institutions' ATMs, safe deposit box transactions, as well as cash advances and installment cash advances; reflecting higher costs and commissions to consumers than the amounts paid to third parties; and failing to notify consumers of fee changes that were implemented."

The statement reported that administrative fines totaling 3 billion 184 million 471 thousand 852 lira were imposed on the financial institutions included in the scope of the audit due to the grievances caused to consumers, and added the following:

"Furthermore, necessary efforts have been initiated to refund the excess fees collected by these financial institutions to the consumers. As a Ministry, our work continues with maximum sensitivity to both protect the interests of our citizens and ensure consumer satisfaction, alongside monitoring the compliance of the financial sector with regulations."

News Source: AA