Banks not to automatically ‘sign up’ customers to open brokerage accounts
The Bank of Russia recommends not using banking service agreements where the client’s consent to open a brokerage account and receive depository services is indicated in advance. This follows from the Bank of Russia’s information letter.
Some credit institutions, when concluding banking service agreements, began to automatically ‘sign up’ individuals to open brokerage accounts. For this purpose, a single form of the document (an application or questionnaire) is used: the client signs once and accepts all the conditions at once, having no choice. As a result, when contacting a bank, for example, to issue a card or open a deposit, a person can become an owner of a brokerage account, even if he or she did not plan to trade on the stock exchange. Many clients do not study the documents carefully enough before signing and find out about it only after receiving calls or letters from a broker associated with the bank. At the same time, there is no guarantee that the broker or the depository will not start charging commissions, even if the accounts are not used.
The Bank of Russia recommends that when using a single document form, individuals should be given the opportunity to choose the services they are interested in. Banks should also inform customers about the possibility of refusing some of them.