FCAC Concludes No Widespread Mis-Selling By The "Big Six" Banks

In early 2017, following media allegations that Canadian banks were using high-pressure tactics and practices to sell a broad range of products and services to Canadian customers, the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) began a review of domestic retail sales practices of Canada's six largest banks. The review took place between May and November 2017 and involved a significant effort on the part of these banks and the FCAC.

On March 20, 2018, the FCAC released its report, Domestic Bank Retail Sales Practices Review (Report), in which it ultimately concluded that there was no widespread mis-selling in Canada, justifying comments made by bank chief executive officers in 2017 that the reports of aggressive sales practices were largely unsubstantiated. The FCAC also noted that consumers carry out millions of successful transactions every day in Canada without incident and that banks and their employees generally strive to comply with market conduct obligations.