Mr Bock, many consumers took out premium-aided savings plans around the turn of the millennium. That was a long time ago. Why is now the time for them to take action?

Many customers who concluded such contracts can still claim back interest payments. For some, these claims will become time-barred in just a few weeks. These customers should therefore contact their bank or savings bank soon to check their contracts, assert claims for back payments and stop their claims from potentially becoming time-barred.

What exactly do they need to do?

These customers need to demand the back payment of interest in writing from their bank. They can invoke the rulings of the Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof), including the one of 9 July 2024. Sample letters are available from consumer centres.

Claims for interest payments become time-barred after three years. Is there a way to prevent this?

Consumers can contact the dispute resolution entity responsible or file a complaint with the competent court. Alternatively, they can demand that their bank confirm in writing that it waives the right to plead the “defence of the expiry of the limitation period”.

Customers may ask a consumer centre or lawyer to check whether they have any claims and when the corresponding limitation periods begin and end. BaFin cannot provide any assistance in this respect, as we are not authorised to provide legal advice.

Three years ago, however, BaFin took action to protect consumers – issuing a general administrative act on interest rate adjustment clauses. What was the background in that case?

The banks had included clauses in their contracts allowing them to change interest rates unilaterally. In 2004, the Federal Court of Justice issued a final and binding statement declaring these clauses to be invalid. In 2010, it went a step further, requiring that a court provide a supplementary interpretation of the contract. However, many banks have long ignored this.

BaFin’s general administrative act obliged them to inform their customers of the court rulings and to recalculate the interest rates. They could do this either by agreeing to observe the court’s supplementary interpretation of the contract or by offering their customers a contractual amendment.

This affected many consumers: in 2021, there were around 1.1 million contracts for which banks had paid an average of about EUR 1,000 to 2,000 too little in interest, according to the Consumer Centre organisation (Verbraucherzentrale) .

The Frankfurt Administrative Court overruled BaFin’s general administrative act a few weeks ago, stating that there had been no substantial, persistent or repeated violation of consumer protection legislation.

We see the matter differently – and have filed an appeal. We hope that a ruling by a higher court will provide even more legal certainty for our administrative practice. I would also like to emphasise that the Administrative Court confirmed the banks’ failure to fully meet the requirements of the rulings of the Federal Court of Justice. Customers’ civil claims against the banks are not affected by the decision of the Frankfurt Administrative Court.

Since the court proceedings are still ongoing, the institutions may ignore BaFin’s general administrative act.

Precisely – and this is another reason why we urge the customers affected to take action now.