Things worth knowing about the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments | General financial discussion | Discussion forum

There is a lot that you might want to know, and I will not attempt to detail all of it here.

To summarize, the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments is the office that you can appeal to when your options at the institution in question have been exhausted.

There are some interesting restrictions:
OBSI's only enforcement tools are the powers of persuasion and embarrassment. They can explain their findings and ask the institution to compensate the complainant if they find the institution in error, but they cannot force them to do so. If persuasion fails, they must publicly disclose this result as well as the complaint itself. These disclosures can be found on the OBSI's website, and make for some fascinating reading.
In addition, some institutions have informed the OBSI in advance that, no matter what the conclusion, they will not comply with the recommendation. OBSI continues with its investigation in such cases.
Further, some institutions have never signed on to participate in OBSI investigations at all. It appears that TD Bank is one of these, although their investment division has.

Relatively recently, the OBSI's mandate has expanded to include investments as well as banking per se.

On the OBSI website, you can find a list of all the institutions that do participate. This does not necessarily mean that they will pay up if found to be in error, but it increases the odds somewhat.
https://www.obsi.ca/en/resource-room/list-of-participating-firms?letter=A

Given recent controversies, forum members will perhaps be relieved to know that Peoples Trust, Home Trust, ScotiaBank and Tangerine do participate, as do some credit unions in Alberta and Saskatchewan. I have not yet found any Manitoba or Ontario credit unions on the list. Perhaps there is another mechanism that applies in MB?

For those who wish to hold their financial institutions to account, it might be an interesting question to ask abut before opening an account, or when considering moving one's money elsewhere. If they don't participate in OBSI, why not? And, if they do, will they commit in writing to abiding by OBSI's verdicts if any dispute should arise in regards to your accounts? The answers should be very interesting.