Ethical standards in customer service

Employees of the Bank’s branches are obligated to observe ethical selling standards included in the Code of Ethics and in the Book of Customer Service Standards. The Standards contain guidelines, which ensure that a product is selected to fill the client’s individual needs and that the client comprehends the operating principles of every product offered, before an agreement is signed.

Every new Bank Millennium employee starts their orientation training by learning about and exercising the provisions of the Book of Customer Service Standards and the Code of Ethics.

Also, the compliance with the standards and the scope of information provided by employees to clients is regularly audited in the sales quality evaluation process through Mystery Shopper studies, which are used to evaluate all the Bank’s outlets with a regular frequency.

If a debt becomes past due, a client may apply to the Bank for an annex amending the initial agreement or, if the debt has become due and payable in full – to enter into a composition agreement for the repayment of the due and payable debt.

If both parties accept the terms and conditions of repayment then, it is possible, among others, to:

• change the monthly repayment schedule by changing the installment amount and/or payment date and the order in which the bank credits repayments (e.g. for repayment of overdue principal amounts first),
• extend the lending term,
• reduce the interest rate,
• temporarily suspend the monthly repayments (in justified cases and only in respect to mortgage loans).

In 2016, 7% of clients with significant delays in repayment took advantage of the above assistance.

Solutions for clients with a CHF loan

99% of Bank Millennium’s CHF mortgage loans is regularly repaid by the Bank’s clients (up to 30 days past due).

Despite the above, in 2016, Bank Millennium continued to introduce facilities for CHF mortgage borrowers, in particular it applied a negative LIBOR rate, reduced the spread to 3% for servicing mortgage loans granted in CHF and also offered its clients to convert the currency of the loan from CHF to PLN at the exchange rate equal to the average NBP rate, while reducing the existing loan margin.

Additionally, for the clients with FX loans where the LTV (ratio of the loan amount to the value of the property) is over 100%, the Bank offered a new solution that allows them to change the loan collateral to a newly-purchased property using the so-called “security deposit account”.

The borrowers in a difficult financial position and those who meet the specific criteria (job loss, monthly cost of mortgage loan service exceeding 60% of the borrower household’s monthly income) may additionally take advantage of the Borrower Support Fund established by 11 banks, including Bank Millennium. The total amount of available funds upon establishment of the Fund was PLN 600 million. [GRI G4 FS15]