Bank Act — B-1.01 627.49
Requirements 627.49 The external complaints body shall (a) maintain a reputation for being operated in a manner that is consistent with the standards of good character and integrity; (b) make its services available across Canada in both official languages and offer those services free of charge to persons who make complaints to it; (c) establish policies, procedures and terms of reference that are satisfactory to the Commissioner pertaining to, among other things, dealing with complaints and the consultation, at least once a year, of its member institutions and consumers for the purpose of raising concerns about the external complaints body; (c.1) establish the manner of calculating, to the satisfaction of the Commissioner, the fees it charges to each of its member institutions for its services; (c.2) make information available to consumers about their rights and responsibilities in relation to the external complaints handling regime, respond to their inquiries and requests for information and offer them assistance in making a complaint; (d) inform the Commissioner in writing within 30 days after the day on which it determines that a complaint raises a potential systemic issue; (e) if it determines that all or part of a complaint is not within its terms of reference, provide the person who made the complaint with written reasons for that determination, and the name of any entity to whom the person may make a complaint, within 30 days after the day on which it receives the complaint; (f) obtain confirmation from a member institution to which a complaint relates regarding whether the period referred to in paragraph 627.43(1)(a) has ended, unless the person who made the complaint has provided it with the written acknowledgment referred to in paragraph 627.43(4)(a); (g) impartially deal with complaints referred to in paragraph 627.43(1)(a) that have not been resolved by its member institutions to the satisfaction of the persons who made the complaints or that have not been dealt with within the prescribed period referred to in that paragraph; (h) no later than 120 days after the day on which it has all of the information that it requires to deal with a complaint, make a final written recommendation to the parties; (h.1) without delay, inform the Commissioner in writing of cases in which an institution does not comply with a final recommendation; (i) within 90 days after making a final recommendation, make a summary of the final recommendation available on its website free of charge, which summary is to include (i) a description of the nature of the complaint that is the subject of the final recommendation, (ii) the name of the institution that received the complaint, (iii) a description of any compensation provided to the persons referred to in paragraph 627.44(c) or (d), (iv) the reasons for the final recommendation, and (v) any prescribed information; (i.1) within 60 days after the end of each quarter, submit to the Commissioner, in a form satisfactory to the Commissioner, (i) in relation to all investigations completed during the quarter, a copy of the record of the complaint, and (ii) any prescribed information; (i.2) within 60 days after the end of each quarter, meet with the Commissioner to discuss, among other things, complaints, operations and market trends and issues with the potential to impact consumers; (j) within 135 days after the end of each financial year, file a written report with the Commissioner on the performance of its functions and activities for that year, which report is to include (i) information about (A) its constitution, governance and terms of reference, and the identity of its member institutions, (B) all sources of funding for its functions and activities, including the fees charged to each of its member institutions for its services and the manner in which those fees are calculated, and (C) the results of the most recent evaluation referred to in paragraph (l), (ii) a summary of the results of any