Bank customers reimbursed $10.5M, finds FCAC

In 2016-2017, financial institutions reimbursed $10.5 million to 1.2 million consumer accounts, reveals the annual report from the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC). The reimbursement made up for inaccurate fee disclosure or interest rate calculations, or for incorrect charges to accounts.

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FCAC’s annual report also details other agency initiatives, such as a new supervision framework, effective 2018, and a review to identify and analyze the impact of bank sales practices on consumers and on financial consumer protection.

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At the request of the finance minister, FCAC will review best practices in financial consumer protection across Canada. This work will inform new proposals to improve consumer protection, and findings will be reported in the next fiscal year.

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In 2016-2017, FCAC also:

• answered 10,177 calls and written correspondence through its consumer services centre, and received 4,528 direct consumer complaints;
• expanded the Canadian Financial Literacy Database to feature 1,371 resources;
• published survey findings that consumers’ awareness of their financial rights and responsibilities has remained stable compared to 2011 research; and
• published a research report that found consumers are often unaware of the high costs of payday loans.

Read the full FCAC annual report.

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Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.