The National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) has filed the sanctioning file that began in June 2021 against the country’s large banks such as Caixabank, Bankia (now integrated into Caixabank), Banco Santander and Banco Sabadell for their possible activity against competition in the process of granting the line of guarantees for ICO credits enabled at the beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic, which had an initial endowment of 10,000 million euros.
At that time, the CNMC made a Covid Mailbox available to allow complaints of possible competition irregularities given the exceptional nature of the moment.
In it, numerous complaints from SMEs were received denouncing that the entities were taking advantage of these loans guaranteed by the ICO to demand the contracting of additional products (mainly life insurance, but also other insurance and products) and to refinance pre-existing debts.
Although it was on social networks that he was first alerted to this possible abuse. Multiple users reported the obligation to contract life insurance associated with the line of guarantees, the acquisition of mobile phones, alarm services, etc.
The aforementioned entities ensured from the outset that the marketing of ICO guarantees was within the conditions of respect for competition required by law.
And it is precisely in that line that the statement issued this Monday, the CNMC, has manifested. It ensures that “after multiple actions”, they have been investigated for two years after opening the disciplinary file and to open it it had already been investigated before, aimed at clarifying the facts addressed to the investigated entities, to representative entities of consumers and users, of small and medium-sized companies or in the field of insurance, the ICO itself and even the Bank of Spain “did not report relevant incidents, nor concrete actions in the field of their respective competences”, for which reason it considers that “the concurrence has not been accredited of the necessary elements to consider an infringement against competition proven”.
