Banks are not abusing information without transparency, which has just been resolved by the Spanish Supreme Court regarding mortgages with IRPH. Despite acknowledging that some clients were not properly informed of the index used instead of Eurybor, the Supreme says it is legal because it has the endorsement of the Bank of Spain. In this sense, he has ensured that mortgages with an IRPH index "are legal".

The High Court of Justice of the State endorsed in 2017 the transparency of the public price index of Spain. Last year, however, EU Court of Justice attorney General Maciej Szpunar considered that the index might not be transparent even if it was official. Szpúnar considered that the index could not be guaranteed to be transparent simply because it was official, and opened the door to state lawyers to investigate whether the index is abusive. In March, the EU Court transferred to the Spanish courts the possibility for banks to correctly inform their customers.

Through a recently published Supreme Court ruling, banks will not be able to be convicted of abuse and, in any event, they will be able to be accused of lack of transparency. If IRPH had been declared abusive, banks should cancel all mortgages with this index and renegotiate with customers. This would mean a loss of billions of euros for banks. However, if the index is confirmed as legal, it is the customers who continue to lose money; those who have that mortgage pay EUR 165 more per month than those who have a mortgage with the Eurybor, EUR 25,000 more. It is estimated that in Hego Euskal Herria there could be around 40,000 affected by this index, although according to the IRPH Stop platform, they could be "many more".

The Spanish Supreme Court has determined that one of the criteria for establishing that a bank did not properly inform its customers is that it did not report the evolution of the index in the two years prior to the signing of the contract. The judgment will be published in full shortly and is expected to incorporate further criteria.