Filing a complaint with a bank: your rights
Learn about what banks must do when they handle your complaint and your rights to receive information.
You have certain rights when you’re dealing with:
- a bank
- an authorized foreign bank
- a federal credit union
Learn more about how your banking rights are protected.
Understanding your rights when making a complaint
Federally regulated financial institutions must have a complaint-handling process.
The process must include a way for customers to get an independent and impartial review of their complaint. For banks, this is done by the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments (OBSI).
Check the complaint-handling process carefully. It may vary from bank to bank.
Learn how to file a complaint with your bank.
Banks’ complaint-handling process
Banks must deal with your complaint and provide you with a written final response within 56 days after they receive it.
They must make the following information available to customers and the public:
- their complaint-handling process
- the contact information for OBSI
- the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) mailing address, website address and telephone number
Banks must also:
- give you the information above in writing, if you ask for it
- display the information above prominently:
- at every branch in Canada where they offer products or services and at each of their point of service
- on every website where they offer products or services in Canada
- provide a copy of their complaint-handling policies and procedures to FCAC
Information about the complaint-handling process
When you open an account, the bank must give you information about its complaint-handling process. The bank must give you this information in writing.
They may give it on paper or electronically, if you agree to receive it that way. The information must be accurate and use language that is clear, simple and not misleading.
When you file a complaint, the bank must:
- provide a written acknowledgment of the date it received your complaint
- explain its complaint-handling process
- give you information to help you meet the requirements of their process
Information about complaint activities
Banks must make certain complaint activity information available to the public free of charge. They must do this within 135 days after the end of each fiscal year.
This information includes:
- the number and nature of complaints handled by the bank’s designated employee responsible for handling complaints
- the average time that employee took to handle complaints
- the number of complaints the bank believes the employee resolved to the customer’s satisfaction
Banks must share this information:
- on every website where they offer products or services in Canada
- in writing (if you ask for it)