Rules for admitting the complaints

Dear Sir and Madame,

Financial Ombudsman acting according to the Act of August 2015 concerning the complaint handling process by the units of financial market and Financial Ombudsman ( journal of Laws from 2015, item 1348) is representing the interest of financial market clients.

A client of financial market can be defined as:

–  A natural person being an insurer, insured, a beneficiary or a person entitled due to the insurance contract.

–  A natural person vindicating his/her claims due to the Act of May, 22 2003 of obligatory insurance, Insurance Guarantee Found and the Polish Insurer”s Bureau.

– member of pension fund or a person entitled due to Act of August 1997,  concerning the organization and functioning of pension funds, participant of employee pension program, or a person entitled due to Act of April 20,2004 concerning the employee pension program, savers or a person entitled due to the Act of  April 20, 2004 about individual retirement accounts  and individual accounts of retirement protection, a person receiving the capital pension as determined in the Act of November, 21 2008 about capital pension.

–  A natural person being a client of a bank, a member of savings and loan associations, client of financial institution,  client of payment service, client of institution offering e-money service ( also foreign institution of this sort) client of credit service, client of financial institution, member of investment funds, investment institution and loan institution.

Financial Ombudsman is not taking any actions when a complaint is submitted by commercial law companies, churches and religious institutions, Public Treasury,  public administration units and offices cooperating with them, local government units, housing associations, government organizations , healthcare centers and other natural persons and organizational units without legal personality.

However, Financial Ombudsman can take actions on the behalf of a client of the financial market in the process of handling a complaint.

According to the regulation, a complaint is a statement addressed by the client to the financial service provider in which a client expresses his dissatisfaction from its service.

Consequently, a complaint can be submitted to the Financial Ombudsman after the financial service provider refuses to do anything reasonable to sort out the problem. Firstly, a client should follow the internal complaint  procedure of a given company.

Financial Ombudsman can be asked for help in resolving a problem in case an insurance service provider do not respond to a complaint  in a reasonable period of time or did not fulfill other obligations determined in the regulation concerning the complaints handling process ( e.g. fails to present in the insurance contract information concerning the complaint procedure or fails to provide a client with proper feedback to a complaint).

In order to launch a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman a client has to send the proper written complaint form.

The complaint should be addressed to:

Mariusz Jerzy Golecki

Financial Ombudsman

Al. Jerozolimskie 87

02-001 Warsaw

or

Biuro Rzecznika Finansowego

Al. Jerozolimskie 87

02-001 Warsaw


Complaint submitted via e-mail should be the scan of written complaint with a signature or include the electronic signature.

A complaint form should include:

-your name

– your address or postal address,

-phone number.

If a person submits a complaint acting on a behalf of other person, a complaint should include also the power of attorney to authorize one to  represent the interest of this person. Sample power of attorney can be found in the Letterform section.

A correct complaint form should include the short outline of the problem and the action taken already by a complainant  in order to resolve it:

–          Provide evidence that all the ways of resolving the issue directly with the financial service provider are exhausted,

–          Provide the details of the problem, outlining the things that the financial company did wrong in your opinion,

–          Provide the arguments justifying that your complaint about a financial unit is rightful and explain what you have lost in terms of personal justice etc.

Every complaint should include also the relevant letter, e-mails and other correspondence with the financial service provider.

When a complaint is passed only to the attention of Financial Ombudsman  without a clearly stated request to start an intervention, a letter is left without any response.

The Controller of personal data is the Financial Ombudsman, with its registered seat in Warsaw, at Al. Jerozolimskie 87. You may contact the Controller by e-mail on biuro@rf.gov.pl , or in writing at the address specified above, including the annotation “Personal Data”. The Ombudsman has designated a Data Protection Officer, who can be contacted at the e-mail address iod@rf.gov.pl
The personal data will be processed for the purpose of fulfilling the statutory tasks of the Financial Ombudsman, in particular including examining applications, initiating and conducting proceedings being the subject of the applications, and for archival purposes.
The legal basis for personal data processing is Article 6(1)(c) of the General Data Protection Regulation (the GDPR), i.e. the fulfilment of a legal obligation.
The personal data may be disclosed to entities cooperating with the Ombudsman as part of the Ombudsman’s performance of the statutory tasks, and to external experts bound by contract with the Office of the Ombudsman.
The data will be stored for a period of 20 years from the time of the completion of the proceedings. Each person has the right of access to his or her personal data, the right to request rectification, the right to request erasure, and the right to request the restriction of the processing of his or her data. Each person also has the right to lodge a complaint with the President of the Personal Data Protection Office. Data submission is voluntary. Failure to submit data will make it impossible to conduct the proceedings.