How to complain when your bank leaves you on ‘read’
We interact with our banks on an almost daily basis, and in such a close relationship, it’s natural for disputes to arise sometimes. But do you know when, how and why you can make a complaint to your bank? Join us as Nieves Prieto tells us about the stories and people behind past complaints and the role played by the Banco de España, which offers the public a one-to-one complaints service.
"You buy a microwave and, unless it breaks down, you never see the guy you bought it from again. But we have almost daily interactions with our bank, which means issues crop up more often than they do in other sectors."
Some relationships go from a match to ghosting. What can you do if that happens with your bank?
We interact with our bank more than with almost any other service in our daily life. Through it, we are paid our wages, pay our mortgage, make purchases, send transfers and manage our savings. And, as with any relationship involving such frequent interactions, things don’t always go smoothly.
In this episode of CIENxCIEN, we talk about bank complaints: what they are, when to make them, who to make them to and what role the Banco de España plays when disputes arise between customers and banks.
Ana Comellas sits down with Nieves Prieto Lavín, head of the Banco de España’s Complaint Division, as she sheds light on what lies behind the cases: real-life stories of people who have had an issue with their bank, be it with their mortgage, inheritance, fraud, unauthorised payments or digital service problems.
Nieves describes in clear terms when the problem is a banking issue and when it needs to be taken up elsewhere, how the complaint process works, what happens when a case is closed and how complaints help improve banking supervision and regulation (because closing a complaint is not the end of the story).
We also meet the team behind the Complaints Service: professionals who analyse thousands of cases each year with technical rigour, but also with empathy, aware that each case involves real people going through important moments of their lives. Over half a million cases have been resolved through this pioneering service, which will mark 40 years in operation at the Bank in a few months’ time.
This episode aims to give listeners a better understanding of their relationship with their bank, when and how to make a complaint and how the Banco de España helps protect bank customers’ rights.
And this episode comes with extra content! As well as learning how the Banco de España’s Complaints Service works from within, in this CIENxCIEN+ we want to provide practical, straightforward guidance and answer some of the most frequently asked questions. Pablo López Rodado, from the Alicante branch office, tells us how to make a complaint, what the channels for doing so are, what the deadlines are, how to follow it up and what happens next.
Acknowledgements:
This episode was recorded in the conference room and banking hall of the Alicante branch office. We extend our special thanks to the branch office director, Pedro Sánchez Abad, for welcoming us, and to our colleagues for showing us their work.
