The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC), which supervises the market conduct of financial institutions, such as banks, trust and loan companies and life insurance companies, is keeping closer tabs on remediation arising from compliance violations.
FCAC-regulated firms returned more than $100 million to consumers in the past year, said Shereen Benzvy Miller, FCAC commissioner, at an event hosted by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) in Toronto on Tuesday. Benzvy Miller spoke with Grant Vingoe, CEO of the OSC, during a fireside chat that was part of the larger event.
In fiscal 2024–25, about $38 million was reimbursed to more than 745,000 consumers and business accounts, according to the FCAC’s annual report for that year (the most recent report).
Benzvy Miller was appointed commissioner in November 2024. Before then, “we really weren’t tracking [remediation],” she said. Now, “we’re focusing on it much more,” including with “robust” conversations with regulated firms.
FCAC decisions listed online include ones in which banking-related errors weren’t detected by firms for one to two decades or more, directly affecting remediation amounts.
Regarding conversations with FCAC-regulated firms about the number of consumers harmed and remediation amounts, “we’ve had no resistance to that,” Benzvy Miller said. The firms “are pretty quick to want to make people whole,” given reputational risk and shareholder accountability.
Banking’s reputation in that regard, relative to the investment side of things, is reflected in the reports of the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments (OBSI). OBSI investigates unresolved disputes between financial services firms (including banks, and mutual fund and investment dealers) and consumers, and makes non-binding recommendations. In banking cases, firms tend to offer amounts equal to or above the OBSI-recommended amount in cases under $10,000, OBSI’s 2025 report says.
Low settlements are more common in investment cases with larger recommended amounts. The Canadian Securities Administrators’ (CSA) most recent consultation on binding authority ended last September, and included a proposed external review process for larger cases.
On binding authority for OBSI, Benzvy Miller said she had no opinion. “We have not had a problem, on the banking side, for compliance,” she said.
She described OBSI becoming the banks’ sole external complaints body, in November 2024, as an example of simplifying the regulatory system for consumer use. “I think that’s really important,” she said.
Concerns about competition, fees
At the OSC Dialogue event, Vingoe noted that he and Stan Magidson, chair of the CSA, and chair and CEO of the Alberta Securities Commission, recently provided testimony to a Senate hearing on the industry’s competitiveness.
At the hearing, the two called out the practice of “the shrinking shelf of investment products offered by bank-affiliated dealers,” Vingoe said — an apparent response to enhanced know-your-product obligations under the client-focused reforms.
Investor advocates have said that one concern with bank branches’ proprietary shelves is the relatively high cost of mutual funds.
Vingoe asked Benzvy Miller how concerns about competition influence her regulatory agenda, given Canada’s concentrated banking sector.
Policy isn’t under her purview as a regulator, she said. Still, a basic rule in banking is that no institution should benefit from a negative consumer outcome, she said. “I’m really interested in outcomes.”
Regarding banking-related fees, “We do not tell the banks what products to offer or how much to charge for them,” Benzvy Miller said. “We do, however, take a great interest in transparency.”
The federal government previously asked the FCAC to prepare a report on the structure, level and transparency of fees charged by the banks — ATM fees or Interac e-Transfer fees, potentially, and the like.
The FCAC’s fee study is currently in play, Benzvy Miller said. Fintechs asked to be included in the study, she said, and the FCAC agreed.
When it comes to products and innovation, Benzvy Miller said “consumer-centric design” must be considered, so that consumers aren’t put at risk in use-case scenarios.
She gave the example of a variable-rate mortgage with fixed payments, and the risk of those payments consisting of only interest if the product isn’t designed with prevention in mind.
“For all products, both in the investment world and in the banking world, you really have to think about a responsible selling environment where you are looking at the risks and mitigating them to the extent that it’s your responsibility to do that,” she said. For their part, consumers still have a responsibility to educate themselves, she said.