The Consumers' Association wants financial regulators to intervene to protect customers from rising bank charges and increasing red tape.

It said on Friday that it has written to regulators, asking for action to be taken  after it received several complaints about increased charges in the past months, as well as about the procedures used to introduce these charges.

The association asked the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority to investigate charges imposed by BOV and HSBC, noting that while these were not the only banks to increase charges, their dominant market position meant other banks followed their example. 

It also wrote to the Malta Financial Services Authority about procedures that worked against consumers, noting how in many cases conditions or charges were changed without consumers being made aware of how the changes affected them. 

The association said that banks often used overly legal and technical phrases when providing information to the public, leading to many not understanding what they were being told.

Bureaucratic procedures were being used without the principle of proportionality being taken into account, it added. Although it understood the need for procedures to avoid money laundering, such procedures should not be used on consumers when the sums of money involved were very small.

The association said that information that used to be given by the MFSA regarding bank charges and interests had not been updated for at least a year. Such information, it said, was important because it gave consumers the opportunity to find all the information they needed in one place.