Photo: Südtiroler Volksbank
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The regional court has ordered the Südtiroler Volksbank to reimburse a customer 385,000 euros because the information requirements in online securities trading were not met. For lawyer Christian Perathoner a dangerous precedent judgment for all Italian banks.
by Heinrich Schwarz
Once again, the Südtiroler Volksbank has to deal with a delicate legal dispute which is associated with a high financial risk. The Bolzano Regional Court recently sentenced Volksbank to reimburse a South Tyrolean customer for an amount of 385,000 euros plus additional expenses.
The customer had filed a lawsuit against the bank after sustaining heavy losses through purchases and sales in online securities trading. In this case, it is not – as in other proceedings – about Volksbank shares, but about other financial products.
Judge Cristina Longhi came to the conclusion that the Volksbank had not sufficiently fulfilled its information obligations with regard to the risks. “When it comes to complex financial products, the bank is also obliged to provide advice when trading via an online platform,” explains lawyer Christian Perathoner, who represents the customer in court proceedings.
The 385,000 euros that Volksbank has to pay customers is the difference between the purchase and sale price of the securities. The customer had sold the securities in question at a significantly lower price than they had bought and thus lost part of the capital invested.
Christian Perathoner
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For Christian Perathoner, it is a precedent judgment – not only for Volksbank, but for the entire Italian banking world: “According to this judgment, a bank should always monitor what the customer is doing on the respective online trading platform. This could become a problem for all banks in Italy, because customers who have not received any advice on complex financial products could ask for money back retrospectively for the past ten years. “
In the meantime, however, the Volksbank in particular could run into problems if further lawsuits follow and the regional court comes to the conclusion that the information requirements have not been adequately met with other customers either. It can be assumed that the Volksbank will appeal against the first instance judgment of the regional court.
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