How To Make A Complaint Against A Financial Institution
RinggitPlus
16th July 2014 - 4 min read
Unhappy with a bank or other financial institution?
Want to file a complaint against a financial institution but don’t know how?
First of all, you should know that you absolutely have the right to lodge a complaint if you are not satisfied or cannot come to a mutual understanding with banks and insurance companies regulated by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM). For example:
Mr. Wang discovered in his latest current account statement that there was a cash out of RM5,000 via cheque numbered 23456. Upon checking his cheque book, he found a few cheques missing and one of them was this exact cheque. After an investigation by the police, it was found that his signature was forged and that the culprit produced a fake identity card with a fake MyKad number when cashing out at the bank, but the bank refuses to return Mr.Wang’s money.
Shouldn’t the bank officer have noticed this and called Mr. Wang to verify the transaction? – Here is a situation that can be disputed!
Let us take this opportunity to protect your right as a consumer, so you don’t get the run-around.
What do I need to do before I can file a complaint?
What do I need to do before I can file a complaint?Identify your problem first before you make a complaint to your institution. If you think the financial institution has been unfair or misleading, discriminated against you, or violated any company policy, you may file your complaint against them. Don’t forget to keep a copy for yourself!
Attempt to settle your problem with the institution
The first step you must attempt is to resolve your problems directly with the institution – try to talk and discuss with the person-in-charge or department.
If you feel that your complaint has not been resolved fully or in a satisfactory manner, you can proceed to make a formal complaint to the Complaint Unit of your institution via email or fax. The Complaint unit is a department established by each institution to handle all complaints and feedback brought forward by customers.
They will take about two weeks to investigate further and review your complaint. If they anticipate that your complaint would take longer than two weeks to be resolved, a representative will update you on the progress accordingly. No matter how small the problem, your institution should be responsible to solve it.
Still not happy? Refer your complaint to the FMB
Not to worry! You can still defend your rights with the Financial Mediation Bureau (FMB). FMB is an independent organisation that mediates disputes between the public and financial institutions.
Prepare the final decision letter from your institution and submit the letter to FMB within 6 months of the date it was issued to you.
Once you have submitted your documentation, the FMB will review your complaint and may meet with you or together with your institution and will make a decision on your case after looking at the law, industry rules and practices of the issues at hand.
Their services are completely free, but bear in mind that there is a limit to the amount that you can claim:
| Claim | Claim Limit |
| Banking/Financial complaint | RM100,000 (excluding fraud cases relating to payment services, credit cards, charge cards, ATM cards, and cheques for which the limit will not exceed RM25,000) |
| Insurance/Takaful complaint | RM200,000 (Motor and Fire Insurance/Takaful) RM100,000 (Others) RM5,000 (3rd party property damage) |
Alternatively, there’s also BNM
Here’s another option for you to file your complaint. If your complaint does not fall within in the scope of the FMB, you may refer your complaint directly to Bank Negara Malaysia through BNMLINK and BNMTELELINK. These departments represent BNM’s important points of contact to facilitate prompt and efficient response to members of the public on matters related to the financial sector.
BNMTELELINK can be reached via mail, e-mail, fax or phone. In addition to this, you can also visit the BNMLINK if you wish to discuss your problems in person as they also provide face to face services to walk-in customers.
FMB and BNM weren’t helpful. What do I do now?
If you are not satisfied with the decisions of FMB or BNM, you may seek legal advice on taking legal action to resolve your problem.
About THE AUTHOR
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Comments (20)
upon receiving the SMS notification of unauthorized overseas credit cards transactions, I immediately block the card and called the bank to inform them about the fraudulence transactions, which occur within seconds of each other. The phone banking officer assured me that the 3 transactions in Vietnam (when I am in Malaysia) is still under Pending, and they can stop it. However, to my disappointment and shock, the monthly statement indicated the transactions, and I disputed it with the bank. after their investigation, they found that I am liable to pay as the bank claimed that the transactions are done over… Read more »
I understand how frustrating this must be for you.
You have two options to escalate the matter:
Financial Mediation Bureau (FMB) – They can mediate with the bank and investigate further.
Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) – You can escalate the case directly to BNM if you believe there’s a security gap that wasn’t addressed properly.
Starting with FMB is a good step, but BNM is also an option if needed. I hope this helps!
thanks so much for the advice.
I also want to complain about the rejection of money from my debit a few months ago, I only have arrears of payment for that month only, in fact I have resolved this problem with RHB bank & RHB bank also rejected my money early once the interest payment . all that was resolved by the RHB bank itself & after a few weeks this problem was resolved… my money was rejected once again to PMT loan financing, at that time my bank still had money left but was rejected by PMT loan financing 2 times, until now I had… Read more »
I’m sorry to hear about your recent payment issues. I’d recommend reaching out to RHB directly to get to the bottom of this. They should be able to provide more insight into what happened.
Oxbc bank had ridiculously charged interest though payment credit amt is more than payment amount due, and refused to pay back or refund monies
It sounds frustrating dealing with such discrepancies in charges from Oxbc Bank. Have you reached out to their customer service to address this issue?
I have lost lot of money investing in wrong products suggested by the RM , illegally transferring my money without my authorisation by a bank staff to buy a car and keying in wrong product codes and transferring my foreign currency for hkg / China investment etc.. it has been happening for the last 7 yrs and now I got stuck with a product for 3+ yrs without any dividends and loosing my principle sum and the bank staff didn’t take any actions. What shall I do in this situation being as a foreigner dealing with a reputed banking institution… Read more »
I’m sorry to hear that. Please consider seeking legal advice and escalating your concerns to higher management within the bank.
I apply Digital SME loan from alliance bank.
My application rejected and the person in-charges did not specified in want aspect it was rejected.
After my several email
1) reason I failed in auto scoring.
Than I make a call to discuss with higher authority..
2) 2nd email receive the management decide not to approve and again never let me know what is my failing point.
Now, my name is in ctos and ccris whereby it’s going to be hard for me to get loan from any other bank..
When a bank reviews an application it will look at your income, any existing loans/credit cards you might have and the payment history. It would be best to contact the bank directly to find out why your application was rejected.
I would like to complaint about UOB bank. As you know, Citibank Berhad has transferred ownership of its consumer banking business to United Overseas Bank (Malaysia) Bhd. Since that, many problems occur among citibank users like me. I can’t register my personal banking. Their UOB TMRW app has problems. I already complained to UOB so many times but still no solution for this. No action taken . Very disappointing. I can’t check my citibank credit card statement. Please check on them what’s going on with UOB.
I’m sorry to hear about your experience. You can contact their customer service directly via phone, email, or their official website.
I want to complain about CIMB rude customer service when i ask abt my unauthorized transaction that CIMB cannot refund back to me. Its impossible to have unauthorized transaction when i never fill in my debit card details in any website or click on suspicious link. I believe this is an insider work since i never revealed my card details to anyone especially website!! Can somebody help me since now CIMB refused to refund me my money saying that they’re nt responsible fr that.
Try bring your case to Bank Negara officer
I want to complaint of unprofessional service & UnAuthorized transaction matter from UOB Bank Malaysia.
I want to complain about Hong Leong Bank on its charges on my housing Fire Insurance which has been billed in monthly repayment but still asking me to pay for it.
The best situation is to purchase your own Fire risk insurance from, say, Generali or Liberty and present it to the bank officer.
It’s definitely cheaper and prevent the banks from making unwanted repeated charges to your account.
Want to make a complaint about Hong Leong Bank service and attitude
i would like to make a report on the appointed Bank Collector. how and where?