The reforms are contained in a new financial consumer protection framework that is meant to address gaps in the system, but despite being almost a decade in development critics say the changes amount more to minor tweaks than any fundamental fix to the problems.
The new rules also reduce the number of days to 56 after first submitting a complaint against a bank before someone can elevate the issue to one of the third-party evaluators. Previously the rules allowed escalation 90 days after it had been escalated to the bank’s second level of resolution, but a lack of transparency from the banks around the timing helped push the actual average time to escalate a claim to be around 130 days.
“It doesn’t really change the fundamental relationship that banks and their customers have, which is still transactional,” said Rene Kimmett, who isan articling student at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre. Such rules are especially useful to protect consumers who are offered products and services via push notifications without the opportunity to ask questions about the product and its appropriateness for meeting their goals, said Kimmett.
“Banks devote considerable time, effort and resources to help ensure customers are provided products and services that are appropriate for them and which they have consented to receive. Banks are committed to compliance with consumer protection measures.” The new rules also do nothing to protect consumers from unfair prices, said Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch, a Canadian advocacy organization.
Nothing will