By ALICE NACHILEMBE
Board of Commissioners for Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) has terminated a contract involving Atlas Mara and Noombo Mcriskey Hachiizo for containing unfair clauses.
CCPC Senior Public Relations officer Namukolo Kasumpa said that Mr Hachiizo lodged a complaint and investigations by the Commission revealed that Atlas Mara had extended a 60 months flexible interest rate loan of K35, 000 by 8 months.
She said the bank did so without notifying the borrower who had fully settled the loan within the agreed time frame.
Ms Kasumpa said the Commission’s investigations also found that after the settlement of the loan
which ran from January 2014 to 31st December, 2018, Atlas Mara begun making monthly deductions of K1, 264 from March to October, 2019 contrary to the agreed monthly deduction of K1, 253.11.
She said Atlas Mara alleged that the deductions were necessitated by the fluctuation in the interest rate of
the dollar.
Ms Kasumpa says the investigations revealed that Atlas Mara charged the complainant a management fee of K21, 000 without negotiating and explaining the implications of the management fee on the loan.
She said that during the Board meeting for the adjudication of cases held on 5th March 2021, the Board found that the contract was not binding as Atlas Mara did not fully disclose the future implications of the contract to their customer.
“The Board also stated that it was wrong for Atlas Mara to charge the complainant a management fee of K21, 000 as a standalone fee as that was a composite of application, arrangement and insurance fees respectively.
Thus, the Board directed Atlas Mara to refund the complainant a sum of K21,000 being the amount that was paid as management fee in accordance with of the Act,” she said.
Ms Kasumpa said the Board advised Atlas Mara to communicate directly to their client son any changes in the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) in order to avoid such occurrences in the future.
