Hardly a day goes by without further proof of the utility of
Uganda's recently passed Competition Act 2023. The recent
decision of Excellent Assorted Manufacturing v DFCU Bank
has highlighted the need for consumer protection in the banking
sector.
Background to the decision
The plaintiffs challenged several charges and debits to their
accounts by their banks, spanning a period of several years. In
what may well be a record-breaking High Court decision of 240
pages, the court investigated each of the contested entries, found
several of them unjustified and ordered a refund with interest from
the date of the debits.
This article focuses on the court's application of the
Financial Institutions Consumer Protection Guidelines, issued by
the Bank of Uganda in June 2011. The Guidelines lay down three
principles to guide the banker–customer relationship:
fairness, reliability and transparency. In this case, the defendant
bank resisted the application of the
