Survey shows consumers demand greater protection to their personal data by their banks.
In the Consumer Council's online opinion survey on bank services, "give greater protection to clients' personal information/data" came out as the priority for banks as it ranked top of a list of areas for improvement, considered measures by more than 70% of the respondents.
Advocated by the Consumers International, March 15 is marked as the World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD). The survey conducted earlier this month was in response to the theme of this year's WCRD which calls for "Consumers for Fair Financial Services".
The online survey aimed at collecting consumers' views and opinions on the services of their banks and areas for improvement. A total of 97 consumers responded to the survey.
Two other areas of improvement most wanted by consumers were "enhancing fee transparency (including giving details of fee waiver policy)" (70.1%) and "providing better manned services (e.g. convenient branch locations, shortened queuing time)" (65.98%).
A majority of respondents (65%) indicated satisfaction with their bank services, but only 60% of these "satisfied" consumers would recommend their banks to friends and relatives.
The Council would forward the survey results to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the Hong Kong Association of Banks for their reference.
As part of the campaign, the Consumers International (CI) has called on leaders of the G20 to establish an Expert Group on Consumer Financial Protection.
In the report named "Safe, fair and competitive markets for financial services: recommendations for the G20 on the enhancement of consumer protection in financial services", CI put forward the following suggestions:
Setting up a new international organisation to support work on financial consumer protection;
Empowering national financial consumer protection bodies with full authority to investigate, halt and remedy violations of consumer protection law;
Stipulating clearer contracts, charges and practices, and financial advice to consumers should be separated from sales-based remuneration;
Establishing effective redress and dispute resolution for consumers;
Introducing measures to promote stability and safety of consumers' deposits and investments including separation of investment and retail banking divisions;
Avoiding market concentration to allow competition in financial services;
Providing more information and disclosure, ensuring consumers receive clear, sufficient, reliable, comparable and timely information about financial service products; and
Governments should seek to encourage innovation in safe, effective, low-cost methods for banking inclusion whilst supporting the development of consumer protection.
The Financial Stability Board (FSB) of the G20 and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have been charged with reporting back to the G20 summit this year on options to advance consumer finance protection through informed choice that includes disclosure, transparency and education; protection from fraud, abuse and errors.
The HKMA had been included in the consultation exercise of FSB and was invited to serve on their working group on enhancement of consumer protection in financial services.
The suggested Expert Group was also expected to make recommendations for the promotion of effective competition in markets for financial consumer services; and also the development of a permanent organization for international standard-setting and coordination with regard to financial consumer protection.
CI is an international consumer body representing 220 consumer organisations in 115 countries. Hong Kong Consumer Council is the Executive and Council member of CI.
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