Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
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429.To ask the Minister for Finance if a financial service provider has not kept required records such as records of phone calls in relation to a customer as detailed in the Consumer Protection Code 2012 issued by the Central Bank of Ireland, can this be adjudicated by the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman. [33530/24]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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There is a robust consumer protection framework in place in Ireland to support consumers who may wish to make a complaint against a financial service provider.

The Central Bank’s Consumer Protection Code (the Code) 2012 imposes record keeping and complaints resolution requirements on regulated entities.

Provision 11.5 of the Code states that a regulated entity must maintain up-to-date records containing, inter alia, “all correspondence with the consumer and details of any other information provided to the consumer in relation to the product or service”. The Code defines “record” as “any document, file or information (whether stored electronically or otherwise) and which is capable of being reproduced in a legible form.”

Provision 11.6 of the Code requires regulated entities to retain details of individual transactions for six years after the date on which the particular transaction is discontinued or completed. They must retain all other records for six years from the date on which the regulated entity ceased to provide any product or service to the consumer concerned.

When any consumer, whether an individual, a small business or an organisation, is unable to resolve a complaint or dispute with a financial service provider or a pension provider, they can refer their complaint to the Financial Services and Pension’s Ombudsman (FSPO).

The FSPO is an independent, impartial, fair and free service. It plays a vital role in the financial consumer protection framework in place in Ireland to support consumers of financial services.

If a consumer makes a complaint about a financial service provider that it has failed within the context of the provision of a financial service, to retain records of its interactions with that consumer, whether phonecalls or otherwise, this is a matter which falls within the remit of the FSPO.

The FSPO provides a service which is accessible to the public, and a consumer is neither required nor expected by the FSPO to be familiar with the provisions of the Code. Rather, a consumer pursuing a complaint is encouraged by the FSPO to explain their complaint in their own words. The FSPO will then scrutinise the essence of that complaint within the context of the regulatory framework for the provision of financial services, in order to ensure that the matter can be investigated as appropriate.