SBP's directives for financial consumer protection

29 Aug, 2014

KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has asked banks, development finance institutions (DFIs) and micro- finance banks (MFBs) to develop and implement their own frame- work on fair treatment of the consumers.

This should be duly approved by their board of directors (BOD) and implemented by July 1, 2015, SBP directed to the above organisations through a circular released here on Friday.

It is expected that the Banks/ DFIs/ MFBs will inculcate a conducive culture enduring fair and quality customer service while delivering banking services to their customers, SBP said.

The circular encloses a detailed note on financial consumer protection, its significance, global developments and bank's own expected role vis-a-vis the financial consumer protection.

Its issuance will transform financial consumer protection into a principle based adoption rather than a compliance check for the banks.

State Bank of Pakistan in its endeavour to foster financial consumer protection across the industry has issued several market conduct instructions for banks. However, it has been noticed that financial consumer protection is perceived to be limited to complaint handling only.

For dissemination of the real connotation of financial consumer protection, the State Bank has issued the above circular entailing the meaning of financial consumer protection and the conduct expected from banks and DFIs for the advocacy of financial consumer protection.

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