Three banks will need to pay combined fines of 260,000 euros as the General Secretary for Consumers found them guilty of breaking the law in withholding the salaries paid to account holders who had debts to them.

The banks proceed to a unilateral holding of part or all the salaries and pensions of holders of accounts in order to settle debts they had to the lenders based on general terms, also known as fine print, in loan contracts.

Piraeus Bank and Eurobank EFG will have to pay 100,000 euros each, while ATEbank must pay 60,000 euros. All fines were imposed with the consent of the Bank of Greece.

Legislation provides for the protection of salaries and pensions in salary accounts up to a certain level and prohibits their use for the offsetting of debts.

The General Secretariat for Consumers has also started the process for the protection of account holders from the so-called deal expenses that some banks impose, beyond the interest paid for delaying a payment of a monthly instalment of a loan.

A Consumer Ombudsman survey showed that those additional charges ranged from 8 to 120 euros per month, while banks are estimated to cash in some 40 to 50 million euros per year from this additional charge.

Source: Kathimerini