The Report for 2021 on the work carried out by the Banking and Financial Ombudsman (ABF) is now online.
In 2021, the ABF took over 27,400 decisions, mainly in favour of customers. The ABF settled about €31 million on customers whose complaints were successful. Thanks to the digitalization of procedures and to the Bank of Italy secretariats, the Panels were able to carry out their activities correctly, despite the difficulties associated with the pandemic emergency.
Litigation on payment services and instruments increased due to the greater diffusion of digital payments during the health emergency; complaints regarding loans secured by a pledge of one fifth of salary and interest-bearing postal bonds decreased.
The new measures, which came into force at the end of 2020, have expanded the possibility to lodge complaints with the ABF for sums of up to €200,000. The average duration of the procedure, net of suspension periods, was 137 days, well below the 180 days envisaged by the law.
As a result of a memorandum of understanding between the Bank of Italy and Consob being implemented, the first forum was set up between the ABF and the ACF (Consob's Ombudsman) to prevent conflicts of interpretation or uncertainties in defining their respective remits.
The presentation of the ABF annual report was held at the Salone Margherita in Rome. The journalist Maria Latella interviewed Luigi Federico Signorini, the Senior Deputy Governor. The video recording of the event will be available on the Bank of Italy's YouTube channel.
