ADICAE GLOBAL - ADICAE international | ADICAE - Consumidores críticos, responsables y solidarios

Presentation of ADICAE, the Association of Consumers and Users of Banks, Savings Banks and Insurances in Spain

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Adicae is the only Spanish association specialised in financial issues. We are present in all the Spanish territory, with offices in Madrid, Barcelona, Cádiz, Córdoba, Granada, Jaén, Málaga, Sevilla, Zaragoza, Oviedo, Las Palmas, Santander, Ciudad Real, Toledo, Salamanca, Valladolid, Tarragona, Ceuta, Badajoz, Cáceres, Mérida, La Coruña, Santiago de Compostela, Vigo, Palma de Mallorca, Logroño, Murcia, Pamplona, Bilbao, Alicante, Castellón y Valencia, with delegates in several other cities and having over 150,000 members.

In 1988, the association AICAR was created in the autonomous region of Aragon, specializing in the protection, training, complaint management, information and consumers' rights reivindication in banking and insurance services.

In 1990 Aicar expanded to the national level, with the name of ADICAE.

The creation of ADICAE is quite curious: it was originatesd because of the concerns of the President himself since then, Mr Manuel Pardos (and of the others founding partners), about the real objective of the Savings Banks.

Theorically, Savings Banks in Spain must not benefit from their business and must give part of their capital to the social work, unlike banks. In 1989 AICAR-ADICAE participated in the elections of IBERCAJA (one of the most important savings banks of Aragon, with over 2,600,000 clients). Then, Mr Manuel Pardos, President of ADICAE, was elected as a member of IBERCAJA directors' Board. However, in 1993 the President of ADICAE had to sue IBERCAJA for its arbitrary refusal to incorporate him on the Board. In 1994 the courts recognized the right of the President of ADICAE to be member of the Ibercaja Board. And, finally, on the 13th of November of 1995, ADICAE got a favorable sentence against IBERCAJA, for his opposition to the inclusion of Manuel Pardos in their Board.

We could say that this action led to the resignation of the President of Ibercaja.

Nowadays, ADICAE provides consumers with guidance, information and deals with complaints regarding saving and investment services and comer issues in general.

ADICAE tries to overcome the huge gap that exists between consumers and big financial institutions. ADICAE examines issues for the benefit of savers and raises the information with absolute independence from business, media and public authorities.

ADICAE is part of the Council of Consumers and Users of Spain, the highest representative body of consumers in our country and also is member of the Advisory Committee of the National Comission of the Securities Market and part of many other bodies representing consumer in order to defend them.

The objectives for its action in the area savings-investment are the following ones:

To provide consumers of basic training on the knowledge of all savings products investment: their characteristics, profitability and risks.
Advise and review contracts related to avoid abusive clauses.
Pursuing and dennounce bad practices of financial and investment companies.
To promote changes in legislation to improve conditions for consumer protection and Spanish users.