Bank and Customer Dispute Resolution

• Author: M.H. Ogilvie
• Profession: Chancellor's Professor and Professor of Law, Carleton University
• Pages: 437-449

437

Cha pter 13

BANK AND CUSTOMER

DISPUTE RESOLUTION

a. Int roduCt Ion

Banks are large, complex organizations, and banking involves complex

services and legal relationships managed by fallible indiv iduals for fal-

lible individuals. Errors occur and must be corrected. In most instan-

ces, this can be done simply at the branch when either the bank or

the customer notices the problem and secures an immediate resolution.

Occasionally, there is a difference of opinion as to the correct solu-

tion, and third party intervention may be required to determine what

that solution is. Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) for customers

has been available in t he Canadian banki ng context since 1994, when

individual bank s implemented internal dispute resolution procedures

for their own customers, followed in 1996 by the establishment of the

Canadian Ba nking Ombudsman (CBO) by the banking sector to hear

appeals from individual bank processes. In this, Canada followed the

implementation of banking ombudsman s chemes in other common law

countries, including the United Kingdom (1986), Ireland (1990), Aus-

tralia (1990), and New Zealand (1992).1

1 See generally M.H . Ogilvie, “Banking O mbudsmen: A Necessar y Evil or Simply

Not Necessar y?” (1996) 11 B.F.L.R. 167 and Jacq ueline J. Williams, “Can adian

Financia l Services Ombudsme n: The Role of Reputational Persuasion” (2004)

20 B.F.L.R. 41.