Ombudsmann-Tätigkeitsbericht 2015

ankenverband
the centrepiece of the legal framework for the German
private commercial banks’ Ombudsman Scheme. It had
not yet been adopted at the time this report went to
print.
Consumer protection at EU level: FIN-NET
Beyond the legal framework, organisational structures
at EU level support the establishment of a level
playing field for out-of-court dispute resolution in the
European Union. The Association of German Banks’
Ombudsman Scheme is, for example, a member of
FIN-NET, launched by the European Commission in
2001. FIN-NET is a cross-border out-of-court complaints
network for financial services in the EU to which 59
national alternative dispute resolution (ADR) schemes
are currently affiliated. FIN-NET is designed to facilitate
the settlement of complaints where the service provider
is located in an EU member state other than that where
the consumer lives, thereby avoiding lengthy and costly
cross-border litigation. The German private commercial
banks’ Ombudsman Scheme received a total of 29 crossborder
complaints in 2015. Nine were submitted to its
Customer Complaints Office as the nearest ADR scheme 1)
and forwarded to the relevant foreign ADR scheme.
Twenty complaints were submitted to the Ombudsman
Scheme as the relevant ADR scheme 2) . These were, in
particular, complaints by German citizens (temporarily)
resident abroad but still customers of a German private
commercial bank. Complaints by citizens in other EU
countries asserting claims arising from a dispute with a
German bank were in the minority, on the other hand.
This is due to the fact that – not only because of the
language barriers – cross-border banking is still not yet
conducted on any significant scale today.
1) The “nearest” scheme within the meaning of FIN-NET is an ADR scheme for the corresponding financial services sector in the
consumer’s country of residence that need not be the relevant scheme.
2) The “relevant scheme” within the meaning of FIN-NET is the ADR scheme for the financial services concerned in the country where
the service provider is domiciled or has its head office.
Tätigkeitsbericht 2015 71