Make a Complaint

You may have a right to an independent and confidential review of your complaint at our office.

Complaint Intake–“Getting Ready”

To get started with submitting your complaint, verify if you have received:

• a final written response from the bank’s internal ombudsman office (final decision letter); or
• a letter from the bank indicating that 90 days have passed since the complaint was received by the bank’s second level of complaints handling or otherwise indicating your 90-day date (90-day expiration letter); or
• you have documentation (i.e. your initial complaint or email to the bank) that is dated and shows you brought your complaint to the bank’s second level of complaints handling (level above Branch level) more than 90 days ago (90-day documentation), and you are not satisfied.

In order to proceed, ADRBO requires 1 out of 3 of the possible documents above. If you have 1 of these 3 documents, you may contact ADRBO for an independent and confidential review of your complaint. If you’re unsure  please reach out to the ADRBO’s bilingual intake team at  contact@bankingombuds.ca or 1-800-941-3655.

Deadline

Please note that, if you have a final decision letter from the bank’s internal ombudsman, you must return your completed document package to our office within 180 days (6 months) from the date of the final decision letter in order for ADRBO to investigate. Otherwise, ADRBO may investigate a matter submitted between 6 months and 1 year after the bank’s internal ombudsman’s final decision only if it is considered fair and reasonable to do so (requiring sufficiently compelling explanation for the delay). ADRBO will never investigate when a complaint is submitted more than one year beyond the bank’s internal ombudsman’s final decision.

Complaint Intake–Submission

To submit a complaint to ADRBO, download and complete the intake documents. Send the completed and signed intake forms to ADRBO by mail, fax (1-877-803-5127) or email. If you have any questions while you are preparing your documents, you can email the email address above, or call ADRBO’s bilingual intake team at 1-800-941-3655.

Along with your intake documents, please include the initial documentation outlined above in “getting ready” (a copy of the bank ombudsman’s final decision letter or the 90-day expiration letter, or your 90-day documentation). Please also include copies of any supporting documents (any documents you think could be relevant to our review, such as your relevant agreements, agreement renewals, statements, receipts, screenshots, etc.). Please note that complaints are not considered “submitted” until all required documentation has been provided to our office. ADRBO endeavours to respond to all communications within 3 business days. For further information, please see our FAQ page, and step-by-step guide.

Review and Investigation

After ADRBO receives your full complaint package, your complaint file will be reviewed by a member of our Ombuds Team who may: ask questions, review your rights and responsibilities, request evidence from you or your participating bank, and may provide access to resolution services at no cost without any requirement for legal representation. If your file is assigned for further investigation, you will be notified and subsequently contacted by the investigator. If we decide that your case is outside of our mandate for further investigation, we will let you know within 30 days from the day we have all the information necessary to make that decision, and we will explain the reasons for the decision.

ADRBO Investigation

All ADRBO investigations must meet standards of fairness, independence, and competence. This means:

• both parties will have a full opportunity to present their case and evidence;
• the investigator has no vested interest in the outcome and is free of any conflicts of interest; and
• all relevant rules will be applied to the facts rationally and justifiably, taking everything into account that ought to be considered.

The investigator will look at all of your documents and the bank’s documents. The investigator will also interview you and relevant bank personnel. You will receive ADRBO’s written decision, including reasons for the decision, within 120 days (4 months) from when the investigator obtains all the necessary information required to assess your case.

Final Report

The final investigative report you receive will include ADRBO’s recommendation. Banks are not forced to follow our recommendations, but we have never had a bank refuse to follow one. If a bank does ever decide to refuse to follow a recommendation, we must publicly describe it on our website (but we would remove all information identifying you so no one would know you were involved and your privacy is protected).