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Bill C-38

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First Reading

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	Complaints
Procedures for dealing with complaints	385.22 (1) A retail association shall
	(a) establish procedures for dealing with complaints made by persons having requested or received products or services in Canada from the retail association;
	(b) designate an officer or employee of the association to be responsible for implementing those procedures; and
	(c) designate one or more officers or employees of the association to receive and deal with those complaints.
Procedures to be filed with Commissioner	(2) A retail association shall file with the Commissioner a copy of its procedures established under paragraph (1)(a).
Obligation to be member	385.23 In any province, if there is no law of the province that makes a retail association subject to the jurisdiction of an organization that deals with complaints made by persons having requested or received products or services in the province from a retail association, the retail association shall be a member of an organization that is not controlled by it and that deals with those complaints that have not been resolved to the satisfaction of the persons under procedures established by retail associations under paragraph 385.22(1)(a).
Information on contacting Agency	385.24 (1) A retail association shall, in the prescribed manner, provide a person requesting or receiving a product or service from it with prescribed information on how to contact the Agency if the person has a complaint about a deposit account, an arrangement referred to in subsection 385.18(4), a payment, credit or charge card, the disclosure of or manner of calculating the cost of borrowing in respect of a loan or about any other obligation of the retail association under a consumer provision.
Report	(2) The Commissioner shall prepare a report, to be included in the report referred to in section 34 of the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada Act, respecting
	(a) procedures for dealing with complaints established by retail associations pursuant to paragraph 385.22(1)(a); and
	(b) the number and nature of complaints that have been brought to the attention of the Agency by persons who have requested or received a product or service from a retail association.
	Miscellaneous
Prepayment protected	385.25 (1) A retail association shall not make a loan to a natural person that is repayable in Canada, the terms of which prohibit prepayment of the money advanced or any instalment thereon before its due date.
Minimum balance	(2) Except by express agreement between the retail association and the borrower, the making in Canada of a loan or advance by a retail association to a borrower shall not be subject to a condition that the borrower maintain a minimum credit balance with the association.
Non-applicati on of subsection (1)	(3) Subsection (1) does not apply in respect of a loan that is
	(a) secured by a mortgage on real property; or
	(b) made for business purposes and the principal amount of which is more than $100,000 or such other amount as may be prescribed.
Government cheques	(4) A retail association shall not make a charge
	(a) for cashing a cheque or other instrument drawn on the Receiver General or on the Receiver General's account in the Bank of Canada, in an association or in any other deposit-taking Canadian financial institution incorporated by or under an Act of Parliament;
	(b) for cashing any other instrument issued as authority for the payment of money out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund; or
	(c) in respect of any cheque or other instrument that is
	(i) drawn in favour of the Receiver General, the Government of Canada or any department thereof or any public officer acting in the capacity of a public officer, and
	(ii) tendered for deposit to the credit of the Receiver General.
Deposits of Government of Canada	(5) Nothing in subsection (4) precludes any arrangement between the Government of Canada and a retail association concerning
	(a) compensation for services performed by the association for the Government of Canada; or
	(b) interest to be paid on any or all deposits of the Government of Canada with the association.
Regulations re customer information	385.26 The Governor in Council may make regulations
	(a) requiring a retail association to establish procedures regarding the collection, retention, use and disclosure of any information about its customers or any class of customers;
	(b) requiring a retail association to establish procedures for dealing with complaints made by a customer about the collection, retention, use or disclosure of information about the customer;
	(c) respecting the disclosure by a retail association of information relating to the procedures referred to in paragraphs (a) and (b);
	(d) requiring a retail association to designate the officers and employees of the association who are responsible for
	(i) implementing the procedures referred to in paragraph (b), and
	(ii) receiving and dealing with complaints made by a customer of the association about the collection, retention, use or disclosure of information about the customer;
	(e) requiring a retail association to report information relating to
	(i) complaints made by customers of the association about the collection, retention, use or disclosure of information, and
	(ii) the actions taken by the association to deal with the complaints; and
	(f) defining ``information'', ``collection'' and ``retention'' for the purposes of paragraphs (a) to (e) and the regulations made under those paragraphs.
Notice of branch closure	385.27 (1) Subject to regulations made under subsection (5), a member association with a branch in Canada at which it, through a natural person, opens retail deposit accounts and disburses cash to customers, shall give notice in accordance with those regulations before closing that branch or having it cease to carry on either of those activities.
Pre-closure meeting	(2) After notice is given but before the branch is closed or ceases to carry on the activities, the Commissioner may, in prescribed situations, require the member association to convene and hold a meeting between representatives of the member association, representatives of the Agency and interested parties in the vicinity of the branch in order to exchange views about the closing or cessation of activities.
Meeting details	(3) The Commissioner may establish rules for convening a meeting referred to in subsection (2) and for its conduct.
Not statutory instruments	(4) The Statutory Instruments Act does not apply to rules established under subsection (3).
Regulations	(5) The Governor in Council may make regulations prescribing
	(a) the manner and time, which may vary according to circumstances specified in the regulation, in which notice shall be given under subsection (1), to whom it shall be given and the information to be included;
	(b) circumstances in which a member association is not required to give notice under subsection (1), circumstances in which the Commissioner may exempt a member association from the requirement to give notice under that subsection, and circumstances in which the Commissioner may vary the manner and time in which notice is required to be given under any regulation made under paragraph (a); and
	(c) circumstances in which a meeting may be convened under subsection (2).
Regulations re disclosure	385.28 The Governor in Council may, subject to any other provisions of this Act relating to the disclosure of information, make regulations respecting the disclosure of information by retail associations or any prescribed class of retail associations, including regulations respecting
	(a) the information that must be disclosed including information relating to
	(i) any product or service or prescribed class of products or services offered by them,
	(ii) any of their policies, procedures or practices relating to the offer by them of any product or service or prescribed class of products or services,
	(iii) anything they are required to do or to refrain from doing under a consumer provision, and
	(iv) any other matter that may affect their dealings with customers or the public;
	(b) the manner, place and time in which and the persons to whom information is to be disclosed; and
	(c) the content and form of any advertisement, by retail associations or any prescribed class of retail associations, relating to any matter referred to in paragraph (a).
Bank Act security	385.29 A bank that is continued as an association under this Act that, immediately before that continuance, held any outstanding security pursuant to section 426 or 427 of the Bank Act may continue to hold the security for the life of the loan to which the security relates and all the provisions of the Bank Act relating to the security and its enforcement continue to apply to the association as though it were a bank.
Transmission in case of death	385.3 (1) If the transmission of a debt owing by a retail association by reason of a deposit, of property held by a retail association as security or for safe-keeping or of rights with respect to a safety deposit box and property deposited therein takes place because of the death of a person, the delivery to the association of
	(a) an affidavit or declaration in writing in a form satisfactory to the association signed by or on behalf of a person claiming by virtue of the transmission stating the nature and effect of the transmission, and
	(b) one of the following documents, namely,
	(i) when the claim is based on a will or other testamentary instrument or on a grant of probate thereof or on such a grant and letters testamentary or other document of like import or on a grant of letters of administration or other document of like import, purporting to be issued by any court of authority in Canada or elsewhere, an authenticated copy or certificate thereof under the seal of the court or authority without proof of the authenticity of the seal or other proof, or
	(ii) when the claim is based on a notarial will, an authenticated copy thereof,
	is sufficient justification and authority for giving effect to the transmission in accordance with the claim.
Transmission in case of death	(2) Nothing in subsection (1) shall be construed to prevent a retail association from refusing to give effect to a transmission until there has been delivered to the association such documentary or other evidence of or in connection with the transmission as it may deem requisite.
Branch of account with respect to deposits	385.31 (1) For the purposes of this Act, the branch of account with respect to a deposit account is
	(a) the branch the address or name of which appears on the specimen signature card or other signing authority signed by a depositor with respect to the deposit account or that is designated by an agreement between the retail association and the depositor at the time of opening of the deposit account; or
	(b) if no branch has been identified or agreed on as provided in paragraph (a), the branch that is designated as the branch of account with respect thereto by the retail association by notice in writing to the depositor.
Where debt payable	(2) The amount of any debt owing by a retail association by reason of a deposit in a deposit account in the association is payable to the person entitled thereto only at the branch of account and the person entitled thereto is not entitled to demand payment or to be paid at any other branch of the association.
Where debt payable	(3) Despite subsection (2), a retail association may permit, either occasionally or as a regular practice, the person to whom the association is indebted by reason of a deposit in a deposit account in the association to withdraw moneys owing by reason of that deposit at a branch of the association other than the branch of account or to draw cheques or other orders for the payment of such moneys at a branch other than the branch of account.
Situs of indebtedness	(4) The indebtedness of a retail association by reason of a deposit in a deposit account in the association shall be deemed for all purposes to be situated at the place where the branch of account is situated.
Effect of writ, etc.	385.32 (1) Subject to subsections (3) and (4), the following documents are binding on property belonging to a person and in the possession of an association, or on money owing to a person by reason of a deposit account in an association, only where the document or a notice of it is served at the branch of the association that has possession of the property or that is the branch of account in respect of the deposit account, as the case may be:
	(a) a writ or process originating a legal proceeding or issued in or pursuant to a legal proceeding;
	(b) an order or injunction made by a court;
	(c) an instrument purporting to assign, perfect or otherwise dispose of an interest in the property or the deposit account; or
	(d) a notice of a support order or support provision.
Notices	(2) Any notification sent to an association with respect to a customer of the association, other than a document referred to in subsection (1) or (3), constitutes notice to the association and fixes the association with knowledge of its contents only if sent to and received at the branch of the association that is the branch of account of an account held in the name of that customer.
Support orders and support provisions	(3) A notice of a support order or support provision may be served at an office of an association designated by the regulations in respect of a province if the order or provision can be enforced under the laws of that province.
Effect of service	(4) A notice of a support order or support provision served under subsection (3) at a designated office of an association in a province does not have effect until the second day following the day of service.
Regulations	(5) The Governor in Council may make regulations
	(a) designating, in relation to any association, a place in any province for the service of notices of support orders and support provisions under subsection (3);
	(b) prescribing the manner in which an association shall publicize the locations of designated offices of the association; and
	(c) respecting the information that must accompany notices of support orders and support provisions.
Definitions	(6) The definitions in this subsection apply in this section.
``designa- ted office'' « bureau désigné »	``designated office'' means a place designated under subsection (3).
``support order'' « ordonnance alimentaire »	``support order'' means an order or judgment or interim order or judgment for family financial support, or any process under the laws of a province for the enforcement of any such order or judgment.
``support provision'' « disposition alimentaire »	``support provision'' means a provision of an agreement relating to the payment of maintenance or family financial support.
1993, c. 34, s. 55(F); 1997, c. 15, ss. 140 to 149; 1999, c. 28, s. 116	302. Sections 386 to 408 of the Act are replaced by the following:
Definitions	386. (1) The definitions in this subsection apply in this Part.
``commercial loan'' « prêt commercial »	``commercial loan'' means
	(a) any loan made or acquired by an association, other than
	(i) a loan to a natural person in an amount of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars or less,

Bill C-38

Complaints

Miscellaneous