2019 has been a busy year for the Banking Ombudsman

news-single-imgcaption" style="width:240px;">Marco Franchetti has been the Bank Ombudsman since July 2013. (keystone)

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Faced with an increase in requests, the Ombudsman for Banks had to roll up his sleeves last year to deal with these cases in a context of crucial legislative change. The implementation of the Financial Services Act (LSFin), which came into force in 2020, generated additional work for the mediator.

In 2019, the number of cases processed increased by 5% over one year to 2013 requests, i.e. nearly 1,300 oral requests and more than 700 written records, said Thursday the Ombudsman for Banks. The complaints transmitted by customers to the mediator mainly concerned bank charges and commissions.

An overwhelming majority of cases (85%) were resolved within three months. The banks also accepted 94% of the mediator’s proposals for resolving disputes.

In addition, 468 new requests for unclaimed funds or contactless assets arrived at the office of the Banking Ombudsman. The beneficiaries of 41 accounts were able to recover 7.5 million francs, as well as the contents of five safe deposit boxes, the statement said.

Last June, the Federal Department of Finance (DFF) recognized it as a mediation body for all financial providers in Switzerland – and no longer just banks – within the meaning of the LSFin.

In anticipation, the mediator’s rules of procedure therefore had to be adapted accordingly, which occupied his services quite a bit last year. It was necessary to develop a new organizational regulation, as well as a new scale of contributions and fees, explains the press release.

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