Spanish Equity Release Fiasco

It does not cease to surprise me how have Scandinavian banks taken a liking for English money. In this instance, we now find out that Nordea also roamed the Costa del Sol in search for the cherry-pick British unencumbered-property owners to wreak havoc in the finances of otherwise hard-working retirees.

In this instance, in respect of other Skandi banks and Rothschild, Nordea basically followed suit with the lies:

1. No inheritance tax for the children.
2. Monthly cash in the pocket of the subscriber to the miracle product.
3. Full protection granted to the property serving as collateral security.

But also:

1. Blatant contempt for the Spanish regulatory/supervisory bodies, the CNMV and the DGS (even though the latter gets mentioned as the venue to place a complaint), as this product was not registered with them (it appears they tried to register it with the FSA but were fobbed off). In turn, they chose to go regulated via the Luxembourg “Commissariat aux Assurances”, in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. They then say that the laws of the country of commitment (Spain) would be applicable, but also mentions that the national law where this person is resident would be applied in the first instance.
2. Blatant contempt for Financial, Civil and Consumer Protection legislation.
3. Unintelligible contracts.
4. Utter unsuitability of the product sold to the profile of the “victim”.

Interestingly, the second thing one reads when reading the paperwork supplied by in 2004 Nordea is a mention to excluded risks, “suicide“: is this foresight, or just an available option in view of the performance effectively achieved by the fantastic product?

About Antonio Flores

Antonio Flores is the head lawyer at Lawbird, a Spanish law firm specialised in property and litigation. More on Antonio Flores.

Uncategorized eq, Nordea