Summary of the Ombudsman´s Report 2011

ankenverband 111
Securities business
The lion’s share of complaints in the area of securities business
– almost 90% – concerned investment advice. Continuing the
trend of the previous year, securities business accounted in
2011 for 55% of all complaints, i.e. more than at any time since
the collapse of the Neuer Markt, Germany’s stock market for
technology shares, in 2000 (around 56%) and the sharp drop in
stock prices following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks
(nearly 49%).
Complaints relating to securities business
in 2011
Portfolio
management
240 245
Settlement
In complaints relating to investment advice, customers
typically claimed that their bank did not properly explain
the risks attached to a specific security they purchased or,
contrary to their previous investment behaviour, advised them
to buy a risky security. In many cases, complainants sought
compensation for incorrect advice in connection with the
purchase of shares in open-ended real-estate funds.
4,094
Investment advice/asset management
The bulk of complaints filed in December 2011 concerned
investments in closed-end funds. These were cases in which
banks acted as investment intermediaries, the sales partner
being the fund initiator. The medium- to long-term investments
in question were, for example, in real estate and media funds.
Most of these complaints are up for adjudication in 2012.
Source: Association of German Banks, 30 June 2012.
The need to prove the key facts of a case plays an important
role particularly in investment advice, as often the customer
and the bank give such a different account of the advice
provided when a security is purchased that no decision
can be reached without hearing witnesses. However, since
the taking of evidence by hearing witnesses is not possible