OBSI News General

On September 11, 2024, the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments (OBSI) submitted its response to the Department of Finance’s consultation on Proposals to Strengthen Canada’s Financial Sector.

Starting November 1, OBSI will begin serving as Canada’s sole designated external complaints body (ECB) for banking, accepting complaints from consumers of all federally regulated financial institutions.  

OBSI’s Terms of Reference have recently been updated to reflect changes to the Bank Act consumer protection framework that came into force on June 30. The Bank Act now requires federally regulated banks’ internal dispute resolution process to deal with a consumer’s complaint within 56 days (previously it was 90 days).

As previously announced, Professor Poonam Puri is currently leading two separate independent reviews of OBSI’s operations and practices relating to our banking and investment-related mandates.

As previously announced, Professor Poonam Puri is currently leading two separate independent reviews of OBSI’s operations and practices relating to our banking and investment-related mandates.

OBSI launched its Firm Portal roughly a year ago. The portal allows OBSI’s 1,400+ participating firms to access case information, securely upload documents, renew their membership, and more. Designed to meet modern stakeholder expectations, our online portal makes it easier than ever for firms to work with us.

Like all our stakeholders, at OBSI we are working hard to continue to deliver our services and fulfill our mandate during the COVID-19 pandemic, and we are closely monitoring the challenges and events affecting our business environment.

The coronavirus pandemic is affecting the lives of people across Canada and OBSI is here to help if we can. We created a page on our website with key information for consumers and financial firms who use our service.

As part of OBSI’s digital transformation, we are developing a website-based Consumer Portal to provide additional value to consumers who submit an online complaint to us.

Members of the OBSI staff volunteered to participate in this year's Terry Fox run which took place across Canada on September 17, 2017. Staff worked together to raise funds in support of cancer research.