European Banking Authority Proposes Extending the Scope of the Complaints-Handling Guidelines

The European Banking Authority has published proposals to extend the Joint Committee Guidelines on complaints-handling for the securities and banking sectors to the new institutions established under the revised Payment Service Directive and the Mortgage Credit Directive. The Joint Committee's Guidelines on complaints-handing for the securities and banking sectors, published in June 2014, apply to national regulators responsible for supervising complaints-handling by credit institutions, investment firms, certain fund managers, payment institutions and electronic money institutions where complaints are made by natural or legal persons about the regulated activities carried out by these entities.

The MCD, which has applied since March 2016, covers non-bank creditors. Similarly, PSD2, in application since January 2018, introduced two new providers of payment services - payment initiation service providers and account information service providers. Complaints-handling by these entities do not currently fall within the scope of the Guidelines.

The EBA is proposing to extend the scope of the existing Guidelines to these entities to ensure that consumers receive the same level of protection when they interact with these new entities as when they interact with in-scope regulated entities. The extended Guidelines would only apply to security-related complaints for account information services provided by account information service providers under PSD2. The EBA proposes that national regulators should apply the extended Guidelines on a proportionate basis, taking into account the nature, scale and complexity of the business of each entity as well as the nature and range of services they offer.

The consultation closes on May 27, 2018. 

View the consultation paper. 

View the existing Guidelines.