In October, when the discrepancy between the price banks buy foreign currency and sell it to their clients, got much bigger than before. Installments paid by clients, increased. KNF received many complaints.
“What matters is whether the margin of the bank for exchanging the currency is fair, or rather unreasonable and treated as an additional source of income for the bank”, Andrzej Stopczynski said.
In his opinion, the discrepancy increased due to difficult situation on the financial markets.
“Liquidity fell, the access to Swiss franc got smaller, and spreads rose”, Andrzej Stopczynski explained.
KNF investigation did not prove that spreads were artificially extended.
“According to earlier analyses, the exchange rates in banks reflected the prices banks paid on the market themselves. We have even noticed narrower spreads in some cases”, Andrzej Stopczynski added.
So far, only once, in Spring, KNF told one of the banks that its spread was too big.
KNF is not going to decide how high spreads should be.
“We mustn’t interfere with banks’ pricing policy. Besides, this would have opposite results, spreads would rise, while competition would disappear”, KNF representative said.
The authorities have an idea, however, how to prevent artificial increase of
spreads: they would like to let clients buy foreign currencies themselves, and
then bring the money to the bank. KNF will soon present this idea to banks
and ask them for consultations.