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OBSI resolves disputes between participating banking services and investment firms and their customers if they can’t solve them on their own.
We are independent and impartial, and our services are free to consumers. You must first complain to the firm involved, but if you remain unsatisfied you have a right to bring your case to us. As an alternative to the legal system, we work informally and confidentially to find a fair outcome.
If we decide that a firm has acted unfairly, made an error or given you bad advice, and you lost money as a result, we will recommend that the firm restore your financial position to where it should have been. We may also recommend other types of non-financial compensation when appropriate. If we think you have been treated fairly, or the offer you have previously received from the firm is fair, we will let you know. While we cannot order a firm to follow a recommendation, we have an excellent record of firms – and clients – accepting our suggested resolution. We will make public the name of any firm that refuses a recommendation.
The limit for our recommendations is $350,000, but many of our cases are for much smaller amounts. However, if your claim is for an amount higher than $350,000 you can voluntarily reduce it.
OBSI is not a regulator, and because we are impartial we don’t advocate for consumers or the industry. That also means we don’t give advice – financial or otherwise. If you don’t like our findings in your case, you are still able to go to a lawyer or seek other ways of resolving your dispute.
Our history
We were founded in 1996 as the Canadian Banking Ombudsman to review complaints by small business against the chartered banks. In a few short months the mandate was expanded to cover unresolved consumer complaints as well.
In 2002, as a result of discussions among government, industry and consumer groups about improving consumer protection in financial services, the investment industry and other firms under federal financial services laws joined. At the same time we invited credit unions to join. That’s when we changed our name to Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments (OBSI).
Today OBSI has more than 600 participating firms across the banking services and investment sectors. Any regulated firm in the banking services and investment fields is eligible to join OBSI.
Our organization
Our independent Board of Directors is responsible for the overall governance of the service.
We regularly meet and discuss issues with government regulators, policy-makers, industry and consumer representatives, but we carefully guard our independence. That’s important so we can continue to be the impartial and fair service that consumers and firms expect when a dispute needs to be resolved.
Our staff is headed by the Ombudsman, and we have two teams of investigators: one for Banking Services and the other for Investments. The Ombudsman is also independent of industry and government. Our staff is experienced, professional and highly qualified to undertake case assessments and investigations.
The funding of the Office of the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments (OBSI)
We levy fees on all of our participating firms based on their size or volume of business. Our budget is set each year by the Board of Directors based on the advice of staff.
Our values and standards
We aim to do all our work with independence, fairness and integrity. Those values help guide the decisions and direction we take as an organization.
We have also used internationally recognized service standards to build our Code of Practice in areas such as timeliness, accessibility, consistency and confidentiality.
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