The Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) has changed the rules on customer complaints by replacing the CSSF Regulation 13-02 relating to the out-of-court resolution of complaints (résolution extrajudiciaire des réclamations) with CSSF Regulation 16-07 (Original – English translation). The new rules came into effect on 11 November 2016, the date of the publication in the Mémorial, the official gazette.
The changes (i) provide additional clarity by adding certain definitions, (ii) clarify the admissibility requirements for a complaint to the CSSF and (iii) introduce a limit of one year from filing the complaint with the relevant professional to filing a complaint with the CSSF.
Most important, the changes require all institutions under the supervision of the CSSF to publish details of their policy about the out-of-court resolution of complaints on their website, including the role of the CSSF. If an institution has no website, it is required to provide the same information to its customers by other means, e.g. in its contractual documentation, brochures or flyers.
Additional amendments apply to communication with customers. According to the new regulation, if an institution is not able or willing to respond favorably to a customer complaint, it needs to inform the customer in writing about the possibility to introduce a complaint with the CSSF and to include the information about the time limit.
As a result of the changes, all institutions (banks, professionals of the financial sector, UCITS, AIFs, SIFs, SICARs, etc.) will need to verify if (i) they comply with the new transparency requirement to publish details about their complaints policy and (ii) their internal procedures comply with the new communication requirements.
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