RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE CBC AND RIGHTS OF CLIENTS / EMPLOYEES OF SUPERVISED INSTITUTIONS
1. The institutions supervised by the CBC (the institutions) must establish procedures for the submission by their clients of complaints in accordance with the “Guidelines for handling consumer complaints in the securities and banking sectors’’ of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and the European Banking Authority (EBA), which require, inter alia, the institutions to:
a) Set up a complaints management policy and a complaints management function and
b) Establish procedures for providing appropriate information to complainants and for responding to complaints.
The EBA and ESMA Guidelines have been endorsed by the CBC:
As clients of the institutions:
2. If you consider that an institution does not achieve a satisfactory solution for your complaint, you have the right to submit your complaint to one of the Approved Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Bodies, in accordance with the provisions of the Alternative Resolution for Consumer Disputes Law:
3. You retain the right to obtain legal advice and take legal actions for the resolution of the dispute with the institution.
4. The CBC provides this procedure for the reporting to the CBC of an actual or alleged breach of legislation where the CBC is the designated competent authority. The CBC will investigate the reported breach and take actions as provided by the relevant legislation, for example it may request relevant information from the institution and may conduct on-site inspections. It may also take supervisory measures and/or impose relevant sanctions.
5. Due to professional secrecy rules, the CBC does not communicate the outcome of its actions in relation to a reported breach to the person that submits it. However, the CBC may publish in its Annual Report an aggregated and anonymised summary of breaches identified during the investigation process and the relevant actions taken.
6. If you are an employee or a client of an institution that is supervised by the CBC and you wish to make a report of a potential non-compliance by the institution with the provisions of legislation where the CBC is designated as the competent authority, please fill in the «Report of an alleged infringement» and send it to the Financial Conduct Section of the CBC either by post or electronically to the email address financialconductsection@centralbank.cy.
7. Your report will be duly processed, adhering to the provisions of the legislation that relates to the processing of personal data. Information on the way the CBC processes and protects your personal data is laid out in the following CBC website: Central Bank of Cyprus - Privacy Policy .
8. Please note that according to article 19 of Directive (EU) 2019/1937 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law, any form of retaliation against persons who report breaches is prohibited, including threats and attempts of retaliation, in particular in the form of discrimination, disadvantageous or unfair treatment.
9. If you wish to submit a complaint or an enquiry or any other report that does not relate to a non-compliance issue, please follow this link https://www.centralbank.cy/en/contact-us.