A. Introduction

• Author: M.H. Ogilvie
• Profession: LSM, B.A., LL.B., M.A., D.Phil., D.D., F.R.S.C. Of the Bars of Ontario and Nova Scotia Chancellor's Professor and Professor of Law, Carleton University
• Pages: 402-403

Page 402

Banks are large, complex organizations, and banking involves complex services and legal relationships managed by fallible individuals for fallible individuals. Errors occur and must be corrected. In most instances, 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 solution, and third party intervention may be required to determine what that solution is. Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) for customers has been available in the Canadian banking context since 1994, when individual banks implemented internal dispute resolution procedures for their own customers, followed in 1996 by the establishment of the Canadian Banking Ombudsman (CBO) by the banking sector to hear appeals from individual bank processes. In this, Canada followed the implementation of banking ombudsman schemes in other common law countries, including the United Kingdom (1986), Ireland (1990), Australia (1990), and New Zealand (1992).¹

Page 403

Since the mid-1990s, the provision of ADR in relation to banks and other financial institutions has been in a constant flux, with new law, new organizations, and the restructuring of old organizations becoming almost yearly events. In this chapter, the evolution of ADR in...