The Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments claims that some clients of TD Bank and Royal Bank aren’t getting their complaints investigated since the banks withdrew from OBSI.
OBSI said Monday that it is continuing to receive a “significant number of calls from customers of RBC and TD who say they are being turned away by the banks’ chosen supplier [of dispute resolution services] in situations where we believe that these customers have a right to have their complaints investigated.”
Additionally, the service says that other customers claim that they are “being discouraged from even making a complaint or that their complaints are not being responded to in a timely manner”.
“An example of a type of complaint we have repeatedly heard involves the calculation of fees, with the complaint being that the bank miscalculated the amount. RBC and TD customers have been coming to OBSI seeking help after the supplier immediately ruled their complaint out-of-mandate,” it reports.
“While banks do indeed have the right to make their own business decisions involving the setting of fees, the complaints were not about the rates but rather allegations the bank miscalculated them and overcharged the customers. Consumers appear to have been denied a fair and independent investigation,” it says.
TD withdrew from OBSI last October, and RBC pulled out several years ago. In the past couple of months, OBSI has been lobbying for the federal government to make it the mandatory dispute resolution service for banking complaints, as was recommended by an independent review of OBSI published last fall. Securities regulators have said they are looking at making OBSI mandatory for all firms under their watch (mutual fund and investment dealers are already required to belong).