Complaints Training. Guide for Customer Facing

the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) - CCUK
Complaint definition, categorisation and handling internal process under the regulations of the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (‘CySEC’) - CCSV
Complaint definition, categorisation and handling internal process under the regulations of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus (‘NBRB’) - CCBEL
Comparison of concepts and procedures between the three entities.
Examples
Q&A

OVERVIEW

DEFINITION .-
¹ ‘any oral or written expression of dissatisfaction, whether justified or not, from, or on behalf of a client or potential client about the provision of, or failure to provide, a financial service, which alleges that the complainant has suffered (or may suffer) financial loss, material distress or material inconvenience.’

uses the word ‘Any’ when referring to oral or written expressions of dissatisfaction. This means that we will accept and treat as a Complaint the statements of dissatisfaction received from clients or potential clients by any possible means.

ESCALATE AS A COMPLAINT DISSATISFACTION RECEIVED THROUGH:
Chat
Email
Social Media
Call
...

DO NOT ESCALATE AS A COMPLAINT DISSATISFACTION RECEIVED THROUGH:
NONE
*All have to be escalated

of, or failure to provide, a financial service.’
Every action we take or situation we face within the scope of a business relationship with one of our clients / potential clients will be considered related to the provision of a financial service, regardless of the situation not being directly related with a financial/money matter.
Examples of complaint causes not being directly related with a financial/money situation but being considered as ‘related to the provision of a financial service’:
Due Diligence (Identity Documents, Source of Funds Wealth...)
Technical Issues of the platform. (some of these issues do not have financial consequences but need to be considered nonetheless.)
Application of Terms & Conditions and/or other Policies.
...

of financial loss, material distress or material inconvenience.’
Note that Compliance will decide if any of these 3 concepts apply to the case and rule it in or out of scope, accordingly. This decision will not have be made by the person receiving the Complaint (Customer Facing Staff).
Financial Loss: Action has resulted in a monetary loss.
Material Distress: Action has affected the emotional state of the client (stress, anxiety, embarrassment...)
Material Inconvenience: Action has caused a difficulty and disruption on the customer’s life.
The above does not necessarily have to be true. If the client claims it to be true then it will fall within the definition.

as INFORMAL or FORMAL Complaints. The only difference between both categories relies on the amount of time that have taken to get resolved.

COMPLAINT RESOLVED WITHIN 3 BUSINESS DAYS.
DAY OF RECEIPT IS DAY ZERO

INFORMAL COMPLAINT

FORMAL COMPLAINT

COMPLAINT NOT RESOLVED WITHIN 3 BUSINESS DAYS.
As per FCA Regulation, Formal Complaints will have to be resolved/formally answered to within 8 weeks from their receipt.

will investigate all FCA Complaints within informal timeframe is Venyamin Smirkin.

statement of dissatisfaction addressed to a firm by a natural or legal person relating to the provision of an investment service provided under MiFID II, the UCITS Directive or the AIFMD”.

According to Article 26 (1) of Directive (EU) 2017/565 “Investment firms shall establish, implement and maintain effective and transparent complaints management policies and procedures for the prompt handling of clients’ or potential clients’ complaints. Investment firms shall keep a record of the complaints received and the measures taken for their resolution”

to CySEC, complaints could be related either with a financial product or with a financial service provided by a CIF (Cyprus Investment Firm).
Examples:
Due Diligence (Identity Documents, Source of Funds/Wealth...)
Technical Issues of the web or mobile platform. (some of these issues do not have financial consequences but need to be considered nonetheless.)
Application of Terms & Conditions and/or other Policies.

compliance department should be informed of any client’s expression of dissatisfaction that meets the following criteria:
received via Email through complaint@capital.com or complaints online Website Form;
queries/questions received by Customer Support or account managers (via Email, Call…) with regards to some issue and request for resolution, and, if/when the resolution is offered, the client remains dissatisfied (keywords): complaint, authorities/regulators, legal actions, lawyers etc;
queries/questions received by Customer Support or account managers with regards to some issue with a request for resolution, nevertheless the query/question is complicated and cannot be resolved within 72 hrs;
recurring questions/queries about the same/identical issue and/or affecting a number of clients;
when the content of the complaint text implies that the complaint should be treated as a formal complaint, i.e. requests for complaint reference number (URN).

not differentiate on the type of complaint, formal or informal.
The company differentiates between a formal complaint and a query (an informal complaint).
Formal complaints will be treated as such only if the client provides details of the causes of the complaint.

(INFORMAL COMPLAINTS)
CC CY has implemented the following procedure for queries/informal complaints handling:
When an enquiry/question cannot be resolved immediately by the customer support/sales agents it should be forwarded through slack to the relevant department.
The relevant department will provide the customer support with a proper reply for the client or if further investigation is required, a task will be opened in Asana for the enquiry.
When the investigation is complete a reply will be sent to the client either through customer support or through the compliance department.
P.S. If the client remains unsatisfied then he needs to be informed that he has a right to submit a formal complaint via complaint@capital.com

not limited to):
Inquiries/questions
Requests to investigate
Request to receive a reply from the compliance department

Generally, informal complaints are the complaints which are easy to be handled internally and the client is satisfied with the information provided or the offer for settlement provided by the company’s representatives..

COMPLAINTS
CC CY has implemented the following procedure for formal complaints handling:
Upon reception of a formal complaint it is registered in an internal register with a unique reference number (URN).
The URN is communicated to the complainant within 5 days upon reception of the complaint.
The CIF informs the complainant that he should use the URN for any future communication with the CIF, the Financial Ombudsman/ CySEC.
Investigation and final conclusion letter needs to be communicated to the complaint within two months from the date the initial complaint was received.
In case more time is needed and a delay is expected the CIF needs to notify the complainant for the reasons of the delay and the expected time of completion. Maximum time of investigation is 3 months from reception of complaint.
Monthly report to CySEC of all complaints received and how they are being handled.

FLOWCHART
(Marina Zarkaveli is the Compliance officer responsible for all Complaints)
If the responsible Compliance Officer makes a decision that a formal complaint procedure should be followed regarding the client’s dissatisfaction, the following takes place

Reception of formal complaint

Notification of reception to client with unique reference number

Investigation within 2-3 months of the complaint

Outcome of investigation and offer to client

Client declines offer and escalates complaint to Financial Ombudsman or/and CySEC

Client is still dissatisfied and escalates complaint to national courts

the securities and banking sectors, JC 2018 35

.-
*Clause 1 of Belarusian law ‘On the complaints (appeals) of citizens and legal entities’ defines the term Complaint as “a demand to restore the rights, freedoms and/or legitimate interests from a complainant, that have been violated by the actions or omissions of organizations and citizens, including individual entrepreneurs (hereinafter, unless otherwise specified, - a citizen)”
*There is no dedicated complaint handling procedure specified by the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus (‘NBRB’). Instead, all complaints other queries/inquiries are handled in accordance with Belarusian legislation.

and categorisation in the context of Belarusian legislation.-

According to Belarusian legislation there is no such as thing an “informal” complaint. At the same time, very specific conditions must be met for a complaint to be considered as “formal” or official.
From legal perspective, all communications containing clear expressions of dissatisfaction or mentions of potential legal actions that we receive from Customers are to be considered as queries/enqyres and can’t be recognised as a formal complaints.
These can be received via our standard means such as Chat, Email, Social Media or Call.
Nonetheless, according to our Company’s internal policies and in order to provide and maintain the highest possible level of Customer satisfaction, such cases are treated and referred to internally as informal complaints.
All unresolved potential complaints must be escalated to the Compliance department and dealt with accordingly.

the current Belarusian regulations, only the following can be acknowledged as formal:
Complaints submitted in a printed/written form and delivered to Company’s legal address by post services or the applicant (his legal representative) himself.
Complaints submitted by the applicant (his legal representative) leaving a handwritten record in a “Book of complaints and suggestions” stored in the office at the Company’s legal address.
In addition to Complaints, the Customers can also submit their claims:
Claims submitted directly to our regulator (no limitations for them to be in a printed/written form in this case).
Legal claims submitted through Belarusian and International legal system (courts).
It must be noted, that there are no third party organisations conducting Alternative Dispute Resolution under NBRB regulations and therefore complaints recognised as formal tend to have much more serious repercussions for the Company in comparison to CCUK and CCSV jurisdictions and must be avoided at all costs.

Complaints definition and categorisation in the context of Belarusian legislation.-

internal process

1. When a potential complaint is received from a Customer via Email, Webchat, Social media, during a phone call, etc. it is mandatory for the employee who handled the initial communication to conduct preliminary investigation and attempt resolving the case immediately.
2. In situations, when immediate resolution is impossible, the case must be forwarded to the relevant department and the Customer needs to be notified accordingly. The relevant department will provide Customer Support department with instructions for a proper reply.
3. If further investigation is required or a decision regarding potential resolution must be made, then such a case needs to escalate to Compliance department via #possible_complaints Slack channel. The responsible Compliance Officers (currently Venyamin Smirkin and Tatiana Borisenko) must be tagged.
4. If the case/enquiry is directly related to legal matters, then such a case must be escalated to Compliance department immediately.
5. Once the case is escalated to Compliance department, the decision will be made whether to treat the case as another enquiry or an informal Complaint. If it is decided to treat the case as informal Complaint, a dedicated Asana task will be created by responsible Compliance Officer.

internal process (visualised workflow)

by the FCA.
> Definition
i) Expression of dissatisfaction
ii) From Client/Potential Client - natural or legal person
iii) re. Financial Service (provision or failure to provide)
iv) Alleged financial loss, material distress / inconvenience.

> Regulation - CySEC adheres to the established in the EU Reg. regarding Complaints.
> Definition
i) Expression of dissatisfaction
ii) From Client/Potential Client - natural or legal person
iii) re. Financial Service or Product

> Regulation - In NBRB there is a lack of strict and formal regulations on Complaints Pr.
Process highly relies on decisions made by Compliance/Customer Facing employees.
> Definition
i) Demand to restore the rights, freedoms and/or legitimate interests.
ii) From any ‘Complainant’

(FCA)
Informal -> Resolved within 3 business days
Formal -> Not Resolved within 3 business days.

> Receipt of Complaints
Website Form / Email to complaints@... / Through CS/AMs
> Categorisation (Internal)
Informal -> Easy to resolve queries.
Formal -> Non resolved informal complaints & Initial Complaints with reference to URN.

> Receipt of Complaints
Chat, Email, Social Media or Call.
> Categorisation (Internal)
Informal -> All queries received that don’t fall under formal cat.
Formal -> Legal, Directly to regulator, by written letter to legal address, by posting in Book of Complaints.

in Slack Channel #uk_informal_complaints
ii) Venyamin investigates and either resolves within 3 business days or the case is taken as formal by Compliance UK.
Formal -> Investigation & Final response generally given within 8 weeks.

> Process
Informal ->
i) CS/AM publishes case in Slack Channel #possible_complaints
ii) Compliance or CS will investigate and provide a response. If the client is not satisfied has to escalate case to formal.
Formal -> Investigation & Final response generally given within 8 weeks.

> Process
Informal ->
i) CS/AM publishes case in Slack Channel #possible_complaints
ii) Venyamin & Tatsiana will decide if treat it as query or informal complaint, and will investigate and respond.
Formal -> Rare cases. Investigation and Final response generally given within 2 weeks.

(‘FOS’)
If a client is not satisfied with our final response, can escalate the case to the FOS free of cost.

> Alternative Dispute Resolution (‘ADR’)
Financial Ombudsman of the Republic of Cyprus (‘FO’)
If a client is not satisfied with our final response, can escalate the case to the FO paying a fee of 20 Euros.

> Alternative Dispute Resolution (‘ADR’)
None

complaints but are not complaints in itself.

CCSV
Complaint: Enquiry
Category: N/A
This is just an enquiry from the client, but it can develop into complaint.

CCBEL
Complaint: Enquiry
Category: N/A
An enquiry from the Customer which could potentially result in a complaint.

identifiable through tone and expressions and implying material distress.

CCSV
Complaint: Yes
Category: Informal
Informal complaint that could be escalated as an official complaint if the answer provided doesn’t satisfy the client.

CCBEL
Complaint: Yes
Category: Informal
Considered informal complaint. However, depending on the circumstances and information in UAA there is a chance that it could have been treated as simple query.

along with thread to take the case to the FOS.

CCSV
Complaint: Yes
Category: Formal
Statement of dissatisfaction. Client mentions FOS.

CCBEL
Complaint: Yes
Category: Informal
Despite the fact that the Customer mentions potential legal actions, the Complaint still considered to be informal according to our standards.

Complaint: No
Category: Enquiry
All cases related to the technical issue from the 5th of July are considered to be informal Complaints.
However, based on communication such a case would have been categorized as an Enquiry.

CCUK
Complaint: No
Category: N/A
Client’s queries can develop into complaints but are not complaints in itself.

Formal/Informal
Complaint mentioned along with thread to take the case to the authorities.

CCSV
Complaint: Yes
Category: Formal
The client gives no other alternative rather than treating this as a formal complaint stating that if it’s not solved according to his wishes he will direct to the Regulator

CCBEL
Complaint: Yes
Category: Informal
Despite mentioned potential legal actions, such a Complaint is treated as informal, but it doesn’t make the case itself any less serious.

Yes
Category: Formal
The client gives no other alternative rather than treating this as a formal complaint stating that if it’s not solved according to his wishes he will direct to the Regulator

CCBEL
Complaint: Definitely
Category: Still informal
Despite peculiarities in legislation and categorisation there is no need to mention, that should this case be real, all efforts would be made to resolve ASAP.

CCUK
Complaint: Yes
Category: Formal/Informal
Complaint mentioned along with thread to take the case to the authorities.