The Ombudsman for Banking Services is committed to providing a high-quality dispute resolution service to private individual and small business customers of banks and to resolving complaints in an independent and impartial manner.

The Ombudsman and his staff aim to enhance banking practice and to become the leader in the field through the development and implementation of actions to achieve efficient, high quality service on a continuous basis.

The Ombudsman and his staff are committed to acting fairly to all parties. 

Core Values

The Ombudsman and his staff are committed to the following values:

  • Fairness
  • Independence
  • Professionalism
  • Accountability
  • Accessibility
  • Timeliness 

Service Standards 

The service standards you may expect of the Ombudsman's Office are: 

  • Fairness 

    • You will be treated fairly
    • You will be given a reasonable opportunity to comment on information provided by the other party to the dispute
    • Our decisions will be balanced taking into account all available relevant evidence and points of view
    • We will explain our decision and reasons to you

  • Independence 

    • We are independent, objective and impartial
    • No one can influence us in the way we make decisions 

  • Professionalism

    • We are ethical and honest and will respect your confidentiality
    • We will be courteous and helpful, and approachable to the extent possible considering our current caseloads
    • We are trained and competent and will provide information about our role and processes
    • We will declare any interest which conflicts with the duty to properly handle complaints
    • We will provide appropriate referrals if your complaint is beyond our jurisdiction

  • Accountability

    • We will act lawfully and in accordance with our Terms of Reference
    • We will treat complaints against this office seriously and with integrity
    • We will be open and transparent in all our dealings, to the extent that considerations of confidentiality allow us to be
    • All telephone calls may be recorded to ensure accuracy and service standards 

  • Accessibility

    • Our ordinary office hours are 8.00am - 4.30pm, Monday to Thursday and 8.00am - 4.00pm on Friday
    • Staff will visit provincial centres for promotional and operational purposes
    • Sharecall telephone access is provided nationally
    • Information about our processes will be freely available
    • We will use plain language in our letters and interviews
    • You are welcome to bring a friend or mentor with you to talk to us, or to assist you in your complaint
  • Timeliness: unless otherwise advised
    • Telephone messages will be answered promptly
    • Case files will be diarised to be dealt with at least once every three weeks
    • Letters, facsimiles and e-mail will be acknowledged and responded to on the diarised date of the file to which they refer
    • You will be informed of the progress of the complaint regularly and ordinarily every three weeks
    • We will be flexible in our approach and try to achieve a negotiated resolution of the complaint when appropriate

Targets

Overall

  • We aim to finalise ALL FILES within six months from date of opening the file 

  • We aim for an average time to closure of the file of 70 days from date of opening the file

  • On occasion it may take longer to finalise a file, particularly if it is complicated, requires us to consult with experts or if one or both of the parties delay in responding to our inquiries

  • It will take longer to finalise a case if one party asks the Ombudsman to make a Determination or asks for a review of the Ombudsman's Determination.