QUESTION PERIOD — Finance
Financial Consumer Agency of Canada
April 30, 2024
My question is for the Government Representative in the Senate.
Senator Gold, bank fraud is a persistent and growing issue in Canada. The escalating frequency of fraudulent incidents at our financial institutions involving fake identification, email scams, real estate fraud and other increasingly preventable crimes is a concern. International criminals are taking note, putting vulnerable Canadian consumers at even more risk of losing their hard-earned savings.
We’ve seen this government start to act through the creation of a beneficial ownership registry and providing financial institutions with the ability to share information in an effort to help fight financial crimes.
With a mandate to “. . . protect the rights and interests of consumers of financial products . . .” how is the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, or FCAC, addressing the concerning surge in bank fraud? If combatting this fraud falls beyond their mandate, what further legislative measures can we expect this government to introduce? Thank you.
Thank you for your question, senator. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada provides information to consumers on their rights and responsibilities in dealing with banking products and services and oversees the federal consumer protection framework, including the compliance of the banks with the complaint handling process.
The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada expects financial institutions to investigate whether the circumstances that led to an unauthorized transaction were beyond the person’s control and to take into account all relevant factors before finding them liable or not.
From personal experience this past week, I can attest that my bank, at least, is acting responsibly in that regard.
I’ve had a lot of experience recently with people coming to me where that’s not happening. So the FCAC is not responsible, and the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investment — who is said to represent consumers — has consumers sign an NDA prior to investigating an incident. If the bank is following their internal policies, the ombudsman does not intervene on the customer’s behalf, even when the bank policy is proven to be ineffective and resulting in consumer harm. Is it understood by this government that our financial institutions are not keeping up with criminals?
The Government of Canada is always attentive to what may need to be done further. As I said, it has put in place measures to ensure, as best as it can, that Canadians are treated fairly by their banks — that includes the designation of an independent and transparent not-for-profit organization, the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments, as a single external complaints body for Canada’s banking sector — and will continue to explore other measures as needed.
