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Effective handling of complaints plays an important part in building trust between market professionals and their customers. However, on-site inspections, a review of the customer protection data appended to internal control reports, and an analysis of information received by the Assurance Banque Épargne Info Service helpline1, among other sources, reveal that certain complaint submission and handling procedures do not do enough to protect customers. To improve industry practices, the Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel (ACP) and the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) decided to take joint action in this area through their Joint Unit. By taking these steps, the AMF is also acting on the findings of a report on compensation schemes for savers and investors2.
The work done by the ACP and AMF is intended to provide customers with assurance that:
- they will receive clear and transparent information about complaint handling procedures and as well as easy access to the complaint handling system,
- their complaints will be dealt with in an effective, fair and standardised manner,
- financial institutions will take corrective measures to address problems highlighted through complaints handling.
In terms of information and access to the complaint handling system, the aim is to ensure that customers are told in clear and understandable language about:
- the procedures for submitting complaints at each level of the system, including contact details for complaints departments and for the ombudsman, where one has been appointed,
- the entity’s commitments in terms of complaint handling times.
As part of this, market professionals must:
- acknowledge receipt of complaints within the promised time,
- keep customers informed about progress in processing complaints, notably in situations where complaints cannot be handled within the promised time owing to special circumstances that must be explained to the customer,
- in a situation where the professional rejects a complaint or refuses to fully or partly satisfy a complaint, it should provide information in the response sent to the customer about the available appeal options, and in particular provide details for the ombudsman, if one has been appointed.
Regarding the organisation of complaints handling, market professionals will be required to:-
- establish resources and procedures that may be used to identify correspondence, phone calls and emails that constitute complaints and to determine the associated processing arrangements,-
- ensure that employees who deal with customers or who receive customer requests are able to clearly identify complaints and use the processing arrangements appropriately.
This organisation should:
- enable the customer to submit a complaint to the person he or she normally deals with, and, if an unsatisfactory response is obtained, to refer to a separate complaints department, insofar as the size and structure of the firm allow this,
- make it possible to comply with the handling times indicated to the customer, which should not exceed, in total:
- ten business days from receipt of the complaint to acknowledge receipt, unless the customer receives an answer within this timeframe,
- two months between receiving the complaint and sending an answer to the customer,
- include clear procedures for forwarding to the ombudsman (if any) any correspondence intended for him/her.
By monitoring and controlling complaint handling procedures, market professionals will be able to identify bad practices, notably in terms of customer protection, and take appropriate corrective steps.
The joint action by the two authorities has resulted in:
- the release of an ACP Recommendation applicable from 1 September 2012 (posted on the ACP website)
- an amendment to the AMF General Regulation (which already contains provisions in this area), supplemented by an implementing instruction (posted on the AMF website). Both have been put out to consultation.consultation.
Note: through a Joint Unit set up in April 2010, the ACP and the AMF coordinate their activities with regard to supervision and monitoring of financial product marketing. One of the unit’s tasks is to ensure that investors enjoy identical protection whatever the product or distribution channel.
1 The Assurance Banque Épargne Info Service helpline (http://www.abe-infoservice.fr) provides a single gateway to the ACP and AMF. Its role is to inform the public and refer callers to the persons best able to answer their queries about financial products, contracts and services.
2 The report, compiled by the working group led by J. Delmas-Marsalet and M. Ract-Madoux, was published on 16 May2011: http://www.amf-france.org/documents/general/9967_1.pdf.
