The Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments (OBSI) Wednesday announced the launch of its Consumer and Investor Advisory Council, an independent body that will provide input directly to OBSI’s board of directors.

OBSI is the national independent dispute resolution service for consumers and small businesses with a complaint they can’t resolve with their banking services or investment firm.

The creation of the council follows from the last third-party review of OBSI’s effectiveness. The evaluators noted that OBSI’s board meets directly with industry and regulators on an annual basis, but does not do the same with financial consumers and investors. Approved by OBSI’s board in September, the creation of council provides that third stream of input into OBSI’s governance structure.

Council members will meet at least quarterly, and an annual meeting will be held with OBSI’s board. The first meeting of the council was November 25, while the council’s first meeting with OBSI’s board took place on December 7.

“Each council member has been invited to participate based on the unique perspective they bring to the table, with the entirety of the council reflecting a broad range of consumer and investor perspectives,” OBSI said in a release.

The first chair of the council is James Savary, Associate Professor of Economics Emeritus at York University in Toronto, and an expert on consumer issues. Savary is a former member of OBSI’s board of directors.

The other council members are:

> Julia Dublin, corporate and securities lawyer in private practice as well as Adjunct Professor at the Osgoode Hall Law School;
> Jim Emmerton. executive director of the British Columbia Law Institute;
> Robert Goldin. investment dispute consultant with MacGold Direct and leading investor advocate;
> John Lawford, research analyst and lawyer with the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC);
> Ermanno Pascutto, founder and executive director of the Canadian Foundation for the Advancement of Investor Rights (FAIR Canada);
> Laura Small. president of the Canadian Council for Small Business and Entrepreneurship;
> Glorianne Stromberg, securities lawyer, now retired, and former commissioner of the Ontario Securities Commission;
> Nidhi Tandon, founder and director of Networked Intelligence for Development; and
> Laura Watts, executive director of Social and Enterprise Development Innovations (SEDI), as of February 1, 2011.

IE