Mortgage Broker

Winter 2014

Mortgage Broker is the magazine of the Canadian Mortgage Brokers Association and showcases the multi-billion dollar mortgage-broking industry to all levels of government, associated organizations and other interested individuals.

Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/254794

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MortgageBroker mbabc.ca winter 2014 | 27 FCACdecision THE FINANCIAL CONSUMER AGENCY OF CANADA (FCAC) released a decision on November 27, 2013, in which it fined a bank a whopping $225,000 for failing to comply with the cost-of-credit disclosure requirements set out in the Cost of Borrower Regulations in relation to credit cards. e FCAC said it received numerous complaints, beginning in December of 2010, about misleading disclosure concerning the bank's credit card statements. ese complaints prompted an investigation culminating in a final investigation report in December, 2012. e bank confirmed that the disclosure problems stemmed from its implementation of new requirements set out in the Credit Business Practice Regulations, which came into force in 2010. ese new requirements are significant in that they require federally regulated institutions to provide a minimum 21-day grace period without interest on all purchases paid by credit card, provided that the customer pays the outstanding balance in full by the due date. Prior to this change, credit card issuers could determine their own grace periods. Although the bank changed its systems to comply with the new regulations by providing an interest-free grace period for all credit card purchases during a billing period, it did not accurately disclose these changes in its initial disclosure statement. e FCAC commissioner concluded that the inaccurate disclosure resulted in consumers lacking the requisite information to understand their true interest calculations and credit card balances. In the decision, she reasoned that, "a central principle underlying the cost of borrowing disclosure regime is that consumers should be in a position to understand how the bank actually calculates interest on their accounts. Without this knowledge, consumers will never be in a position to verify whether the bank made an error, nor to compare the charges with those of other financial institutions." n —Samantha Gale, MBABC, CEO Bank Fined for Disclosure Violations Complaints spark two-year FCAC investigation D+H.indd 1 14-01-17 1:15 PM p26,27_FCAC.indd 27 14-01-27 11:42 AM

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