El blog de Maria

Practically the entire financial sector is under the Judge of the Commercial Court number 11 of Madrid.

This Judge has admitted into procedure the largest class-action lawsuit filed against 45 banks in Spain and Spanish savings banks on the controversial  'floor clauses”, which prevented many Spanish mortgages to benefit from the sharp drop in interest rates experienced since late 2008.

Anyone interested can join this action at least till the end of March. 

A report by Bank of Spain prepared at the request of the Senate in May 2010 estimated that in Spain there are 3.8 million people with this type of clause in their mortgage contracts. 

The floor clauses are those which establish that there is a certain level at which the interest rate is not revised downwards. This level is often placed above 3%, but varies greatly from one entity to another. Can reach up to 5%. 

Most of the Spanish Banks and Saving Banks are included in this action: BBVA, Banco Popular, Banco de Galicia, Banco Guipuzcoano, Banco Pastor, Banco Basque Country and Galicia Bank, as well as CAI, Caixa Galicia, Caja Castilla La Mancha, Caixa Girona, Caixa Nova, Caixa Manresa, Caixa Ontinyent, Caixa Penedes, Caixa Sabadell, Caixa Rural de Balears, Caixa Tarragona, Box Circle, Caja de Ahorros de Catalunya, Caja Extremadura, Caja Badajoz, Caja Duero, Caja Spain, Caja Canarias, Caja Granada, Caja Insular de Ahorros de Canarias, Multicaja, Caja Rural de Asturias , Caja Rural de Cuenca, Caja Rural de Navarra, Caja Rural de Granada, Caja Rural del Sur, Caja Segovia, Caja Sol, Caja Sur, Cajalon, Cajamar Ipar Kutxa, Unicaja, Caixa Caixa de destalvis Unio Manlleu, Sabadell Terrassa i , destalvis Caixa de Catalunya, Manresa and Tarragona i Caja de Arquitectos. 

 The association has announced it will extend its application to other entities such as Santander and La Caixa.

 
They call for the annulment of said clauses due to gross disproportion between the floors and ceilings on interest rates of fixed mortgage contracts. 

There is a fairly recent precedent in this regard. In October 2010 the Commercial Court number 2 in Seville declared abusive  floor clauses in mortgages contracts of  BBVA, Caja de Ahorros de Galicia, Caja Rural Cajamar and Cajamar, who are forced to eliminate and refrain from use in subsequent contracts. 

Bank of Spain backs the financial institutions by defending floor clauses as  part of the loan, from the legal point of view, so that "if included in clauses worded clearly and comprehensibly, freely agreed, need to be considered legal and will not fit into the catalog of abusive and that there is symmetry  between floors and ceilings

Ronda by Natalie Maynor at Flickr.com