ΠΕΡΙΓΡΑΦΗ

The appropriate handling of complaints marks out financial institutions and firms as being concerned to improve their relationships with their customers and their own standards generally. MiFID 2 was the first general EU financial services directive to take the subject seriously and lay down, through its MiFID Org Regulations, some Europe-wide complaint rules. Now, the ESMA/EBA guidelines apply to complaint handling in Cyprus and elsewhere in the EU. The EIOPA guidelines perform the same role with insurance cases. Like many other countries within the EU and outside it, Cyprus has a Financial Ombudsman with power to deal with complaints on all these subjects. 

This course looks at the complaints process from the start to finish. It will begin by looking at the key elements of a complaints policy and procedure. Then, it will tackle the way firms need to tell customers about their right to complain to both firms and the Ombudsman. The key issue is the identification of complaints, the definition of a complaint, the various ways customers can communicate their dissatisfaction and any possible limitations on firms’ procedures in this area. Since each stage in complaint handling is a stepping-stone to the next, acknowledgement effectively launches the investigation and that in turn leads to the decision and final response on the complaint. If the customer does not like that letter, it can refer the matter to the Ombudsman. At the end of the day, root cause analysis or other forms of learning from complaints helps the firm to know where it can improve.  

ΣΚΟΠΟΣ ΣΕΜΙΝΑΡΙΟΥ

By the end of the programme, participants will be able to:

• Apply the MiFID Org Regulation provisions to complaints 
• Build and implement the basics of a complaints procedure and policy 
• Understand the complaints process from advance disclosure of the process to the closure of the case 
• Handle impossible or difficult complainants sympathetically and effectively 
• Appreciate some of the root cause analysis techniques and their weaknesses 
• Reach fair results in relation to their products and services and complaints about them 
• Deal with cases at the Financial Ombudsman and know how to cope with threats of litigation 

ΣΕ ΠΟΙΟΥΣ ΑΠΕΥΘΥΝΕΤΑΙ

• Complaint handlers 
• Customer relations and customer service staff 
• Lawyers 
• Risk managers 
• Board directors and chief executives 
• Compliance officers and managers 

ΠΕΡΙΣΣΟΤΕΡΕΣ ΠΛΗΡΟΦΟΡΙΕΣ

Training Outline

• Elements of the procedure and policy 
• The complaints management function 
• Advance disclosure of how to complain 
• Identification, recording and acknowledging 
• Investigation 
• Assessment and final response 
• Financial Ombudsman 
• Root cause analysis 

Training Style

The training style is interactive involving a combination of discussions and presentation, group work and case studies (taken from real-live examples).  

Participants are encouraged to share their opinions from their different perspectives.  The trainer, Adam Samuel is a UK-based complaints and compliance expert who has handled complaints for firms, consumers and as an Ombudsman’s Assistant and Ombudsman. He is the author of the only book on UK financial services complaint handling, now in its second edition. He brings to our courses his experience and knowledge of the UK and the subject-area generally as well as an unquenchable enthusiasm for learning how the rest of Europe and in particular Cyprus handles things. He brings to every course a string of practical examples and welcomes people bringing along their case studies and examples. 

CPD Recognition

This programme may be approved for up to 5 CPD units in Financial Regulation. Eligibility criteria and CPD Units are verified directly by your association, regulator or other bodies which you hold membership.

Trainer

Adam Samuel

Adam Samuel is a lawyer qualified in the UK and the USA. Since 1996, Adam has run his own training and consulting business, helping out regulators in three continents on customer-facing issues. He has the qualifications required of a financial, mortgage and equity release adviser and the UK CISI compliance diploma. Adam wrote the only book on consumer financial services complaint handling in the UK and a guide to the SFC Code for Intermediaries in Hong Kong. The Gibraltar Supreme Court followed his expert evidence in van Geens v. Jyske Bank on product risk, compliance and advice standards around the world. Adam has broadcast on a number of BBC domestic and World Service programmes, including the national news, on financial services compliance and banking issues.