Philosophy
Consumerlab’s philosophy: the adoption of the European Union directives issued at the beginning of the 1980s has strongly favored the development of consumer-oriented legislation in Italy in recent years.
The banking sector, for its part, had already begin to lay the foundations for a more complete application of concepts like product information and transparent economic and contractual conditions following the promulgation of the 1992 law on banking transparency. Law 281 of 1998 provided a frame of reference for what could be called a real ‘Bill of Basic Consumer Rights,’ such as the right to adequate information, to correct consumer education, to transparency and fairness in contractual rights concerning goods and services, and to the promotion and development of consumer and user associations.
Within this picture, along with specific legislation for consumer protection, banking institutions have been paying ever greater attention to their relationship with consumer groups. Inspired by this, in 2004 the Gruppo Montepaschi proposed to the consumer groups registered with the Ministry of Economic Development, through the National Council of Consumers and Users, to create a joint “Workshop” (Laboratorio), to last an experimental two years, as a way of approaching important consumer issues in the interest both of customers and the Bank’s ability to stand out from the rest of the market, in the conviction that these issues offer significant opportunities for improvement of the group’s ability to compete in the market.