KEY POINTS:
The past year was one of innovation and progress for the banking sector's dispute resolution scheme, Banking Ombudsman Liz Brown's annual report issued today says.
Ms Brown, Banking Ombudsman since 1995, said her office had taken steps to maximise the speed and efficiency with which complaints were handled.
"Despite a 43 per cent increase in investigations commenced, the time taken to resolve complaints has decreased," she said.
"The closure of the ten thousandth case file during the year illustrates the considerable volume of complaints that are formally settled by the office, although many more enquiries and complaints are resolved informally."
Ms Brown said banks had continued to improve and refine their complaints processes, with the great majority of cases being "sensitively handled and resolved".
But she said far too many bank staff and bank customers still lacked an informed understanding of banks' internal complaints processes, including the role of the Banking Ombudsman as an avenue of last resort.
"The Banking Ombudsman is successfully extending the scheme's community outreach to sectors that, until now, have been underrepresented amongst complainants."
Ms Brown said the Code of Banking Practice had grown in length and complexity, and needed review to make it "easier to understand and more accessible to the public".
The Banking Ombudsman scheme has recently been incorporated, granting the Banking Ombudsman Board, and not, as previously, the New Zealand Bankers' Association, the power to determine its Terms of Reference -- the legally defined parameters of the scheme.
- NZPA
