Budget 2013 – A New Federal Consumer Code

As part of its 2013 Budget tabled in Parliament yesterday, the federal government has indicated its intention to develop a "comprehensive financial consumer code to better protect consumers of financial products and ensure they have the necessary tools to make responsible financial decisions."¹  This pledge seems to be in fulfillment of Parliament's intention expressed in the third recital of the new preamble to the Bank Act that was enacted in 2012: "And whereas it is desirable and is in the national interest to provide for clear, comprehensive, exclusive, national standards applicable to banking products and banking services offered by banks;". It is also no doubt in response to the decision of the Québec Court of Appeal in Marcotte v. Banque de Montréal that was handed down in August 2012. In that case, the court found that because the regulatory regime under the Bank Act did not provide for civil recourse for the failure to disclose a foreign exchange fee – and