“These rule changes are small steps to improve things a little bit,” said Duff Conacher, with Democracy Watch, a corporate accountability advocacy group. There are more than 60 changes to Canada’s banking law, which include things like shorter wait times for complaints to be resolved, electronic alerts that warn of low bank balances and limits on how much you’re liable for if your credit card is lost or stolen. The rule changes have been 10 years in the making, and although the federal government passed legislation to modernize the new rules in 2018, they only took effect three and a half years later, on June 30, 2022. Some of the new changes that benefit Canada’s 30 million bank customers include that a bank must address customer complaints within 56 days instead of 90 days. Banks must limit liability for lost or stolen credit cards to $50 and warn customers if they overdraw or exceed their credit limit, which could result in additional charges. After complaints that banks were presenting expensive and unnecessary products to their customers, they can now only sell products and services that are suitable for their customers’ needs. Conacher said the banks were selling products and services that would benefit their bottom line. “The complaint reports revealed that banks were upselling, essentially selling consumers things they didn’t need to make more money, and that will be banned,” Conacher said. CTV News Toronto reached out to Canada’s major banks and was directed to the Canadian Bankers Association. A spokesperson for the association said in a statement, “Building and maintaining strong customer relationships is fundamental to banks in Canada. Banks spend significant time, effort and resources to ensure that customers are provided with products and services that are appropriate for them and that they have consented to receive.’ “Banks are committed to complying with consumer protection measures and have established codes of conduct that articulate standards of employee behavior, including expectations related to ethics, integrity and sales practices. The Canadian Bankers Association and its members have long supported a strong federal regulatory framework for consumers.” While it’s good news for bank customers that they can now only be held responsible for $50 if their credit card is lost or stolen, Conacher said banks can also say the customer was negligent in protecting their credit card information and to hold them responsible for any fraud that has occurred. “The bank can say it’s your fault and then you try to go to court yourself and do everything you can to stop them from taking money out of your account to pay for the credit card charges that were made.” , Conacher said. Under the new rules, banks will also have to set up a whistleblower program to allow employees to report problems that would otherwise go unreported.
