Sberbank Rejects Franak Association’s Accusations of Irregularities in Conversion

Sberbank on Monday rejected all accusations of irregularities and illegalities in the conversion of loans in Swiss francs, which were made against it and two other banks by the Franak Association, emphasizing that the conversion is fully conducted in accordance with the law.

“Sberbank operates fully and without exception in accordance with the laws and positive regulations of the Republic of Croatia and all regulatory requirements,” the bank stated in a press release.

It is added that Sberbank, based on the request of the Croatian National Bank, immediately removed contractual provisions regarding the consequences of a potential repeal of the Consumer Credit Act by the Constitutional Court from the draft conversion contract, as well as other contractual provisions related to the request of the CNB. New, amended contracts are being sent to clients and will reach them as soon as possible, Sberbank stated.

It is also emphasized that Sberbank does not require additional security instruments nor conditions the acceptance of conversion with a one-time payment of the determined shortfall. For this, they add, there is the possibility of increasing the principal of the loan or an unsecured loan, and the repayment of the lesser paid amounts is agreed amicably, in accordance with the client’s capabilities.

Regarding the method of conducting the conversion in terms of determining interest rates, exchange rates, etc., Sberbank claims that they acted in accordance with the law and applied the conditions that the bank approved for comparable loans in euros at the time of contract conclusion.

Sberbank also draws attention to the fact that in the collective lawsuit initiated by the Consumer Association – Croatian Association of Consumer Protection against eight banks in Croatia, Sberbank is the only bank for which it has been legally established that it did not violate collective interests and consumer rights.

“The law under which we conduct the conversion of CHF loans is unfortunately unclear and vague in several places, and due to these shortcomings, the practice of conversion is evidently different from bank to bank. We believe that we have been unjustly singled out by the Franak Association as someone who leads in irregularities, as a whole series of alleged irregularities attributed to us are not our practice and this can be easily verified,” said among other things, the CEO of Sberbank Andrea Kovacs Woehry.

The Franak Association today announced at a press conference for Tuesday, December 8, a blockade of the Sberbank branch on Varšavska Street in Zagreb, as they believe that this bank is committing irregularities and illegalities in the conversion of loans in Swiss francs, and similar blockades for Hypo-Alpe-Adria-Bank (HAAB) and Raiffeisenbank Austria (RBA) are planned for Saturday, December 12.

The coordinator of the Franak Association Goran Aleksić stated that the Association has reported all banks due to numerous irregularities and illegalities during the conversion, but, as he assessed, Sberbank, RBA, and HAAB are the worst.