The provincial courts are already beginning to establish jurisprudence on microcredits and the so-called ‘fintech’. This is maintained by the law firm Navas&Cusí, pointing out that justice refuses to accept a specific interest rate and they compare it with consumer credit statistics for less than one year, which in January stood at 6.90% compared to rates of 1,500% or even 5,000%.
“The difference is so abysmal that it is not possible -concludes Juan Ignacio Navas, managing partner of Navas & Cusí -not to resolve that we are facing a usurious rate”.
The provincial courts of Madrid and Barcelona have already ruled that it is not possible to compare with microcredit statistics but with the consumer loan market in general. “And the comparison turns out to be lethal,” explains Navas. The expert points out that justice rejects the claim that it is “another specific market.”
Two million euros
As it is a “structural and extreme difference”, practically all complaints end in a declaration of usury. “And that means that the bank must return 100% of the interest charged because, being a null interest rate, it cannot be remedied”, explains the managing partner of Navas & Cusí.
On the other hand, the rulings also value the fact that the granting of the credit is automatic and that no analysis of the consumer's risk is carried out. “All that points to bad banking practice and in many cases to the entity being ordered to pay costs,” he points out. “Short terms, surcharges, and the real cost, not just the nominal one, are also taken into account”, he adds.
The firm estimates the annual figure of 2 million microcredits for a value of 20,000 million euros. “The impact for microcredit and fintech companies can be very significant,” points out the lawyer. “Fintech and microcredits know that in most cases they are acting outside the Usury Law. It hasn't mattered to them because the number of claims was low. But the cost order can substantially change the scenario and jeopardize an activity that is profiting from the vulnerability and lack of consumer education,” concludes the managing partner of navascusi.com