The mess of postal savings bonds of the Q / P series issued between July 1986 and 1995 continues. Now Confconsumatori raises the alarm: the risk is to clog the courts with lawsuits. The alternative would be: to open a conciliatory table between the Italian Post Office and consumer associations. But Poste continues not to want to know.
The story. In recent years, upon expiry of the thirty-year vouchers, thousands of savers have collected less money than they expected and as indicated on the voucher itself. The origin of the chaos is the decree which, since 1 July 1986, has lowered the yields of postal savings bonds. To adapt to the new course, Poste Italiane would have had to print new coupons, with new rates and new yields. Instead he did not: he “readjusted” the old P series vouchers by putting a stamp on them with the new yields. Except that, as already explained by some expert lawyers in the sector, this operation was badly done. Because in many cases Poste did not stamp the old vouchers, or (most of the time) the stamp only changed the income of the first twenty years, leaving unchanged the one from the twenty-first to the thirtieth. And so, at the end of the thirty years, Poste has recognized the amounts provided for by the 1986 decree, while savers demanded that the annuities established by the previous law be recognized for the last ten years.
The victories of savers. Every year the Financial Banking Arbitrator (ABF), the body that resolves disputes of this type without resorting to ordinary justice, receives thousands of appeals relating to these good “hybrids”. And he always agrees with the saver, asking the Italian Post Office to pay the differences. The problem is that ABF’s pronouncements are not binding and Poste does not execute them.
For this reason, many savers have turned to ordinary courts. And from the first sentences, the orientation of the judges is exactly that of the ABF colleges: for the last ten years the subscribers have the right to obtain the fruits established by the pre-1986 law. In this situation, explains Confconsumatori, “we are forced to suggest to our associates who have already obtained positive rulings from ABF, to assert their economic rights before the courts”.
For this reason Confconsumatori asked, in a note sent to Poste, the Ministry of the Economy and Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, to “know the reasons why a public body voluntarily evades the decision of the Bank of Italy, a choice that will clog the courtrooms “.
Poste, however, goes on its way and in a note reiterates that “in the dispute over interest-bearing bonds of the Q / P series” its line “is supported by law, by the principles contained in the sentences of the Constitutional Court and by the Court of Cassation and numerous judgments of merit issued by courts and Courts of Appeal. Poste Italiane is respectful of the role of the ABF and of the savers who choose to contact the Arbitrator: it regularly participates in the arbitration and defends itself scrupulously. This does not prevent it from legitimately turning to ordinary justice to protect its interests when it deems the decisions taken by the ABF to be groundless ”.
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