Reconsiderations and Complaints About OBSI

Complaints about OBSI

OBSI endeavors to provide dispute resolution services that are fair, accessible, impartial, timely and responsive to banking and investment firm customers. If you are not satisfied with our services, you disagree with our conclusions or you have concern about our compliance with our regulatory commitments, you may raise the matter with us so we can address it. There are three ways you can let us know if you are unhappy about the service we have provided: complaints about the outcome of your case, complaints about our failure to meet our regulatory obligations and complaints about our level of service to you.

Complaints about the outcome of your case:

If you disagree with our mandate decision or investigation conclusions, and:

believe we have failed to consider the issues or information you told us about,
have new information that you have not previously provided us with, or
have reason to think our decision is unfair or unreasonable,

then you can request that we reconsider our decision or conclusions. We call these "reconsideration requests".

The reconsideration request must be made in writing by filling out the form below. We must receive your request within 30 days from the date of our letter informing you of our mandate decision or investigation conclusions.

Reconsideration Request Form

Submit your Reconsideration Request Form:
Email:	reconsiderations@obsi.ca
Mail:	Reconsideration Request Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments 401 Bay Street, Suite 1505, P.O. Box 5 Toronto, ON M5H 2Y4
Fax:	1-888-422-2865 to the attention of Reconsideration Request

OBSI is committed to handling reconsideration requests in a fair and impartial manner, and we take your reconsideration request seriously. When you submit a reconsideration request, a Reconsideration Officer who has not been previously involved in your case will be assigned responsibility for reviewing your request. The Reconsideration Officer will acknowledge receipt of your request within 5 business days. The Reconsideration Officer will review the information you have provided and may contact you to obtain further information. If the Reconsideration Officer finds there is not sufficient basis for a reconsideration, the Reconsideration Officer will explain the reasons to you in writing.

If your case warrants reconsideration, the Reconsideration Officer may:

fully reconsider the matter and uphold the initial decision or conclusions,
fully reconsider the matter and change the initial decision or conclusions, or
send the matter back to the initial investigator or customer service officer for further investigation or assessment if appropriate, such as when new information has been brought forward.

We will typically provide a final response to a reconsideration request within 90 days.

While the suspension of a time limit for you to start a lawsuit (known as the "limitation period") may have applied to your case while we investigated it, please note that this suspension does not apply during the reconsideration process, so the time limit to start your lawsuit will continue to run while we consider your reconsideration request. If you have concerns about limitation periods, we strongly recommend that you speak with a lawyer. OBSI cannot provide you with legal advice.

The decision of the Reconsiderations Officer or Ombudsman is final. When you use OBSI's services you do not give up any of your legal rights to pursue resolution in other forums such as in the courts. Therefore, OBSI's decisions and conclusions cannot be appealed to a court or other higher body. Also, to maintain the independence and impartiality of our staff, our Board of Directors does not examine specific cases.

Complaints about our failure to meet our regulatory obligations:

Investment Complaints Regulatory Framework

OBSI has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) that provides for securities regulatory oversight of OBSI as well as a framework for cooperation and communication. The oversight framework provides standards for OBSI to meet with respect to:

governance,
independence and standard of fairness,
processes to perform functions on a timely and fair basis,
fees and costs,
resources,
accessibility,
systems and controls,
core methodologies for dispute resolution,
transparency in respect of material changes to OBSI's operations or services, including material changes to its terms of reference or by-laws, and
information sharing with the CSA, including regarding issues that appear to affect multiple clients of one or more firms.

A Joint Regulators Committee (JRC) has been established, which includes representatives of the CSA's designates (Alberta Securities Commission, British Columbia Securities Commission, Autorité des marchés financiers, and Ontario Securities Commissions), the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada and the Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada (IIROC and the MFDA). OBSI meets with the JRC on a regular basis to discuss governance and operational matters, as well as significant issues that could impact the effectiveness of the dispute-resolution system.

Banking Complaints Regulatory Framework

OBSI is an approved External Complaint Body (ECB) for banking complaints under the Bank Act and operates according to the federal Complaints Regulations established by the federal Department of Finance and overseen by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC). These regulations address matters such as:

operating with the standards of good character and integrity,
making our services available in French and English,
offering our services free of charge to consumers who make a complaint,
providing impartial and independent services,
accepting any bank that requests membership as a member,
providing information and referring consumers to another external complaints body, if applicable,
providing our decision about any part of a complaint that falls outside of our mandate within 30 days of receiving the complaint,
transferring a complaint to another external complaint body when applicable,
advising the parties to the complaint in writing if a complaint is transferred to OBSI from another external complaint body,
advising the FCAC Commissioner if any complaint raises a systemic issue,
informing the parties to a complaint about our terms of reference and procedures and assisting them to understand them,
dealing with complaints in a manner that affects only the parties to them,
providing our conclusions in writing within 120 days of receiving all of the required complaint information,
consulting at least annually with banks and consumers who have complained about our services and performance,
submitting an annual report to the FCAC Commissioner and making the report public, and
submitting to an independent evaluation of our services every five years.

If you have a question or concern about OBSI's compliance with the obligations discussed above, please submit your compliance question or complaint in writing by filling out the form below.

Compliance Complaint Form

Submit your Compliance Complaint Form to our Chief Compliance Officer:
Email:	compliance@obsi.ca
Mail:	Chief Compliance Officer Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments 401 Bay Street, Suite 1505, P.O. Box 5 Toronto, ON M5H 2Y4
Fax:	1-888-422-2865 to the attention of Chief Compliance Officer

An acknowledgement response will be provided by the Chief Compliance Officer or designate within 5 business days.

While we review your question or complaint, we may contact you for additional information. We may also contact the regulator(s).

You will receive a response within 60 days.

OBSI is committed to handling compliance complaints in a fair and impartial manner, consistent with our regulatory obligations, and we take your concerns seriously. However, please note that the Chief Compliance Officer cannot review mandate decisions or investigation conclusions (complaints about those matters must be made in accordance with our reconsideration process described above).

When your complaint is received, the Chief Compliance Officer will review whether OBSI has properly followed its policies and procedures and its regulatory obligations described above. The Chief Compliance Officer may recommend changes or modifications to our operations if compliance-related issues are identified. The regulator(s) may be informed of the matter and any action(s) OBSI takes.

You may also contact FCAC directly for banking-related compliance issues: How to contact FCAC.

Complaints about our level of service:

If you are dissatisfied with the level of service we have provided - whatever the actual outcome of your case - you can submit a service complaint. For example, we want to hear if you think, in handling the case, we have treated you rudely or unfairly, or failed to explain things properly.

We take all complaints seriously. If you submit a service complaint, a member of our management team will review and respond to your concerns.

Address your service complaint:
Email:	service@obsi.ca
Mail:	Service Complaints Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments 401 Bay Street, Suite 1505, P.O. Box 5 Toronto, ON M5H 2Y4
Fax:	1-888-422-2865 to the attention of Service Complaints