01 december 2022, 10:40

Meeting of the Advisory Committee of the Financial Ombudsman Service of the EEU Member States

On November 28, 2022 another meeting of the Advisory Committee of the Financial Ombudsman Schemes of the Eurasian Economic Union countries was held via videoconference.

The Russian side was represented by Yury Voronin, Chief Financial Ombudsman, who acted as the meeting moderator, as well as by Olga Kraynova, the head of the Ombudsman for financial services consumers support Service (OFSC), and Financial Ombudsmen Viktor Klimov, Svetlana Maximova and Denis Novak.

Aleksey Guznov, State Secretary and Deputy Chairman of the Bank of Russia, Chairman of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) Council, delivered a welcoming speech.

Yury Voronin, the Chairman of the Advisory Committee, stressed at the beginning of the meeting that all decisions are taken by the members of the Advisory Committee based on the consensus principle.

During the meeting, a number of issues were considered according to the approved work plan of the Advisory Committee for 2022.

The Office of Financial System Mediator of the Republic of Armenia presented the report “On Assessing the Feasibility of Harmonization of the Legal Framework on Dispute Settlement between Financial Ombudsmen and Consumers of Financial Services and Financial Institutions based on the Analysis of Normative Acts Regulating Financial Ombudsmen’s Activities in the Eurasian Economic Union Member States”.

Financial Ombudsman Svetlana Maximova reported on the results of the analysis of approaches to decision making by financial ombudsmen in the Advisory Committee member states.

Financial Ombudsman Viktor Klimov reported on unfair practices identified in the activities of financial institutions in the Advisory Committee member states.

Chairman of the Advisory Committee Yury Voronin noted in this regard: “Unfair practices used by financial institutions in relation to consumers are very diverse. In fact, the only thing they certainly have in common is that they are all aimed at violating the rights of consumers of financial services. Financial ombudsmen take measures in their jurisdictions to combat, prevent or reduce the identified unfair practices. For our part, we post on the Financial Ombudsman Service official website a list of unacceptable practices identified in the activities of financial institutions interacting with the Financial Ombudsman. I would like to note that this is an important incentive that affects the reputation of financial institutions, encourages them to eliminate such practices, and affects their consumer rating.”

Olga Kraynova, the head of the OFSC, made a presentation on digital services used in the Financial Ombudsmen’s activities within the Advisory Committee member states, as well as informed the participants of the meeting on launching the Advisory Committee information resource based on the Russian FOS website.

Further to the discussions and exchange of opinions among the members of the Advisory Committee, a plan of subsequent actions was approved for harmonization of the legislation on financial consumer protection in the EEU countries.
 

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