responsible credit
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NATIONAL CONFERENCE MALTA: A successful exchange of views on responsible credit with a special focus on the mortgage loan market.
On 9th March 2007 a Maltese Conference on Responsible Credit was held in Malta with the Maltese Consumer Affairs Council in collaboration with the Maltese Ministry for Competitiveness and Communications and the European Commission. Further participants were the Maltese financial service authority and several representatives of Maltese banks.

Some of the issues discussed were over-indebtedness from a European Union perspective, the trader’s and bank’s awareness of over-indebtedness in Malta, the ongoing increase of consumer debts in Malta and the coexistent decreasing savings rate alongside it, and the consumer perspective on over-indebtedness. Achim Tiffe from the institute for financial services (iff) gave an overview about the principles of the ECRC and the concept behind “responsible credit”, explained the typical consumer complaints and problems observed in Germany with regard to mortgage loans and the mortgage loan sector: such as combined products, adjustment of variable interest rates, discrimination and fraud (e.g. “Schrottimmobilien” - junk apartments where more or less worthless flats were sold to an estimated 300,000 consumers on the doorstep, overpriced and financed by banks). He also gave an overview on existing national regulation of mortgage loans for consumers in several European Countries. Mortgage loans are not regulated by the European Union in contrast to consumer credits.

Developments in the proposal of the Consumer Credit Directive and the effect for the credit market and consumers were also discussed, as were house prices and the transparency of the real estate market in Malta. Because Malta is strongly influenced by the tourist market, prices for apartments and houses have increased steadily in the past, which has created severe problems for local citizens to actually finance an own apartment and build up assets in the form of property over their lifetime. Another noticeable real-estate problem mentioned was the fact that there is no transparency of prices for apartments and houses, leading to suggestions that both an institution of valuers or a systematic overview would benefit Malta greatly as it would allow consumers to compare prices of apartments and houses with different standards more easily.

Altogether the Maltese Seminar on the World Consumer Rights Day 2007 was a good opportunity to discuss current and future trends of the mortgage sector in Europe and at the national level with banks, consumer association and the financial service authority.

ID: 39823
Author(s): Achim Tiffe, iff
Publication date: 10/03/07
   
URL(s):

Link to Organizers (Malta Consumer Affairs Council)

See links from the "National Conferences" page
 

Created: 14/06/07. Last changed: 14/06/07.
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