Jacek Jastrzębski, Chair of the KNF, was a keynote speaker during the wrap-up session after the first day of the 12th Banking Law Congress of the Polish Bank Association.

During his summary, Jacek Jastrzębski stated that the status quo achieved when it came to the free credit sanction (FCS) and Swiss franc cases, i.e. instrumentalisation of consumer protection, of which the FCS was a flagship example, was definitely not a success. ‘We need to learn the lesson from that when working on the implementation of CCD2. The instrumentalisation of law went so far because courts themselves are reluctant to take the role of cogs in the machine of claim pursuit. The courts defend themselves against it and they want guidelines on how to adjudicate in a reasonable manner,’ he said.

He added that the thing with the CJEU rulings was that everybody read them differently. ‘This is clearly visible on LinkedIn, where subsequent rulings are hailed by both the litigation attorneys of consumers and the litigation attorneys of banks. This path of rescuing our courts from being clogs in the machine of claim pursuit failed,’ he stated. Jacek Jastrzębski indicated that legal regulations should be drafted so as to prevent such situations. ‘The implementation of CCD2 is a huge civilisational opportunity to use the painful experience from the free credit sanction or Swiss francs to the fullest and minimise the risk of instrumentalising consumer protection law as much as possible,’ he said. He added that there was an urgent need in this regard to coordinate the actions of public institutions. ‘Consumer protection is not a problem. What is a problem is the instrumentalisation or commercialisation of such protection. We have a unique opportunity to arrange that market anew. Let’s use these lessons to minimise such risks so that we, as the State, would not find ourselves in a situation where we are putting out the fire with one hand, while adding fuel to it with the other one,’ he stated.