Crédit Agricole tops complaints

CREDIT Agricole has been crowned France's most complained-about bank by a consumer group.

French bank users' association Afub put the company at the top its first-ever league table of complaints.

The consumer group said 16.1% of the 3,000 letters it received in the last three months of 2009 were from Crédit Agricole account-holders.

The Caisse d'Epargne came second with 12.1% and Banque Populaire third with 10.8% of all complaints received.

The figures come out at the time of year when every French bank is sending its annual reminder to customers detailing exactly how much it charges for various operations.

The yearly recap of fees has been a legal requirement for the past two years, and was designed to improve transparency and trust.

However research by Ipsos for online bank Fortuneo has found that two-thirds of people do not know how much their bank charges for various day-to-day transactions.

Almost 90% of respondents said they thought it was wrong that they were charged for withdrawing cash from a machine belonging to another bank. Some 78% disapproved of paying for transfers.

L'Autorité de la Concurrence, the French competition watchdog, says banking fees are still not transparent enough - the same conclusion that European Commission reached in a report on banking practices last September.