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Complaints against banks are on the rise, according to the financial services industry’s ombudsman.
Overall complaint volumes remained stable, but banking-related complaints increased, based on the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments (OBSI), which released its annual report for 2015 on Wednesday.
The Ombudsman opened 273 banking cases last year, up 21 per cent in the year before. The increase continues a trend of the past two years, according to OBSI, that also handles complaints related to investments.
The top complaints aimed at banks involved mortgage prepayment penalties, account collections and closures, and repair. There were also complaints about suspected fraud, primarily involving debit and charge cards.
OBSI received a total of nearly 5,300 inquiries from Canadian consumers, which led to the outlet and investigation of 571 cases.
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The majority of them, 298 cases, were related to investments, but that figure declined 14 percent in the 345 investment-related cases opened in 2014
Suitability of investment, or advice, remains the most typical source of complaints related to investments, followed by accusations of poor product and fee disclosure, complaints that client instructions weren’t followed, and beefs over service.
The OBSI report noted that a backlog of complaints that clogged the machine in the aftermath from the financial crisis was eliminated in the first 1 / 2 of this past year.
Customers and clients of banks and investment dealer clients can use OBSI’s complaints service totally free, that makes it a well known choice when disputes cannot be resolved by a financial services firm’s internal ombudsman. However, while OBSI investigations result in recommendations for compensation, they aren’t binding.
Two major banks, Toronto-Dominion Bank and Royal Bank of Canada, no longer resolve banking disputes through OBSI, though their investment dealer units remain members.
