OBSI experienced a large jump in caseload in 2008 for the second year in a row, with a record 670 files opened in the year. That was a 43 per cent increase from the previous year, more than doubling the number of cases coming to OBSI over the last two years.
The increase is likely from two reasons. First is growing awareness of OBSI, particularly among referral sources who are in contact with many consumers each year. That reflects significant effort by OBSI to build a broader network and a higher profile. Second is better communication by some firms telling their customers who have made a complaint, but are not satisfied with the firm’s response, that they can bring their complaint to OBSI for review.
However, we have a long way to go. Too many clients are telling us that their firm did not tell them about OBSI and their right to bring their case to us.
Later in 2009 we expect the complaint-handling rules from the two investment self-regulatory organizations to be in effect, as well as OBSI’s own revised Terms of Reference. These include improved communications requirements that will ensure consumers are aware of their options in the complaint process and get their complaint handled faster. These are necessary advances in consumer protection and dispute resolution in financial services in Canada.
We are looking forward to the day when we are confident that every customer of a participating firm knows they can bring their complaint to OBSI if they are not satisfied with how their firm responds to it. That will require the active support and participation of regulators and financial services firms.
Overall, we opened 346 investment files and 324 banking services files. A total of 167 files went to full investigation, a slight drop from the year before despite our overall growth. That’s because of our increased emphasis on facilitated settlements as away of resolving disputes. These settlements are a quicker and more efficient way of reaching agreement, and allow the parties to avoid going through a full and lengthy investigation. We have had positive feedback from both clients and firms to our efforts to resolve more files through facilitation.
Of the 656 files we closed in 2008, 91 were facilitated settlements. That was a 10-fold increase from just two years ago.
Opened cases in 2008
Opened cases over 12 years
Contacting OBSI
While the telephone is still the most common way of contacting OBSI with an inquiry or complaint, other channels of communication are growing, particularly email. Phone calls remain the largest proportion of the more than 14,000 contacts we recorded in 2008 through our Consumer Assistance Officers.
- More than 14,000 individual contacts were recorded in FY08
- Our website complaint form is being used on average once a day to register a complaint
- The OBSI website had nearly 22,000 unique visitors and more than 180,000 page views
Compensation
During the year, OBSI facilitated settlements involving compensation for clients in 91 cases and made 64 recommendations for compensation after doing a full investigation. All OBSI recommendations were accepted by firms in 2008. In another 103 investigation files we upheld the firm’s position.
Small Business
This year, we received 19 complaints from small businesses with five going to investigation. In banking services, five of the complaints were about transaction accounts and two were about loans. Two were about other issues. In investment files, the complaints were a mix of suitability, service issues, poor performance and unauthorized trading.
Where do our complaints come from?
As a national service, OBSI gets complaints from coast to coast to coast, and everywhere in between. We also see files from customers of participating firms living abroad who have banking and investment accounts in Canada. This table compares the percentage of complaints received by OBSI by province or territory compared to its percentage of the population of Canada. The proportionately lower number in Québec reflects that the caisses populaires Desjardins do not participate in OBSI at the banking services level.
| Complaints | Population | |
|---|---|---|
| 7% | 10.6% | Alberta |
| 15% | 13.3% | British Columbia |
| 2% | 3.6% | Manitoba |
| 1% | 2.3% | New Brunswick |
| 1% | 1.5% | Newfoundland & Labrador |
| 0% | 0.1% | Northwest Territories |
| 1% | 2.8% | Nova Scotia |
| 0% | 0.1% | Nunavut |
| 54% | 38.8% | Ontario |
| 0% | 0.4% | Prince Edward Island |
| 14% | 23.4% | Québec |
| 1% | 3.0% | Saskatchewan |
| 0% | 0.1% | Yukon |
| 1% | International | |
| 1% | U.S.A | |
| 1% | Unknown | |
| 100% | 100% |