OBSI’s new Data Cube is the next step for greater access to financial complaints information
Toronto, October 6, 2022 – The Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments (OBSI) is pleased to announce the launch of a new interactive digital information tool called Data Cube. The Data Cube provides at-a-glance access to current and historical information about OBSI’s case experience and outcomes in an open and accessible visual format that allows users to interact with and filter data by date range, product, issue, industry, or firm. This new online tool provides information previously disclosed in OBSI’s annual report.
“The Data Cube is part of our commitment to digital modernization, transparency, and accessibility,” said Sarah Bradley, Ombudsman and CEO, OBSI. “We recognize the important role that insights from our case experience can play in helping consumers, industry leaders and regulators understand and resolve consumer complaints about financial products and services. With the Data Cube, we’re making that information more readily accessible for everyone to improve public understanding and help to ensure a fair, effective and trusted financial service sector.”
The Data Cube offers a range of features, including:
- online access to aggregate OBSI data and statistics about a wide range of information, including:
- consumer inquiries
- banking and investment complaints
- products and issues
- case outcomes and compensation
- demographics
- case closing timelines
- historical data starting from November 1, 2016
- current data updated and expanded quarterly
- customizable visualizations using colourful graphs, charts, and tables
- easy-to-use features to search the data by date range, industry, sector, and other variables
- an interactive interface allowing users to highlight any element on the tables and charts in one click, prompting the rest of the page to automatically adjust and focus on the selected element.
Data is sourced from the OBSI case management system and presented through graphs, charts and tables using Power BI software. The data is aggregated and does not contain any confidential information about complaints made to OBSI.
The Data Cube is launching in English and will be updated and released in French in the future.
In addition, OBSI has begun posting banking case summary information for all cases closed on or after June 30, 2022, involving federally regulated banks. Case summaries are posted within 90 days after the date of our final recommendation in compliance with the recent changes to complaints disclosure requirements of the Bank Act.
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Canada’s Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments (OBSI) is a national, independent, not-for-profit organization that helps resolve and reduce disputes between consumers and financial services firms in both official languages. OBSI is responsive to consumer inquiries, conducts fair and accessible investigations of unresolved disputes, and shares its knowledge and expertise with all stakeholders and the public. If a consumer has a complaint against an OBSI participating bank or investment firm that they are not able to resolve with the bank or firm, OBSI will investigate at no cost to the consumer. Where a complaint has merit, OBSI may recommend compensation up to a maximum of $350,000.
For more information or to request a media interview, please contact:
Mark Wright, Director, Communications and Stakeholder Relations
416-287-2877 ext.2225
publicaffairs@obsi.ca