New regulation forces banks to quickly resolve complaints

SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA – September 19th, 2012 – A bank client should have to wait no longer then 2 weeks to receive an answer regarding a complaint, according to new regulation that came into effect last month.

Banks must now also offer complete information regarding the prices of the services that they offer.

According to the regulation, all complaints must now be resolved within ten business days.

If by the 9th day, the bank has not resolved the issue, it must inform the client that the matter will take additional time.

All banks must also have information on their websites regarding commissions for services such as payment of public services, transfers, account fees, and debit and credit card fees, amongst others. The majority of banks already comply with this measure.

The regulation provides a 6-month period, which began last month, for all financial institutions to adopt the new standards.