Ottawa, Ontario
The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) applied an administrative monetary penalty of $4.25 million on the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) for a violation of consumer provisions in the Bank Act.
RBC failed to transfer credits from deactivated credit card accounts to customers' new accounts. As a result, these customers received inaccurate monthly credit card statements, and some customers incurred additional charges.
A total of 227,947 accounts were impacted financially, and RBC transferred and refunded more than $22.4 million. For the customers that could not be identified, preventing refunds to their accounts, RBC made a charitable donation of $299,000 instead.
The violation is described in Summary of Proceeding #5, published today.
Accurate disclosure is a foundational element of the consumer protection provisions of the Bank Act. For consumers to make informed financial decisions, they must be provided information that is accurate.
All federally regulated financial institutions are expected to review the findings of FCAC Decisions and Summaries of Proceedings and apply them to their own practices, as appropriate, in an effort to achieve the highest levels of compliance with protections for financial consumers.
