Complaints against bankers on rise

Complaints against bankers on rise

Michael Babad

The Globes and Mail, Jun. 09, 2010

The ombudsman for the financial sector says consumer complaints hit their highest on record last year, driven by a sharp increase in disagreements on the investment side. The Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments, the national body that resolves disputes for consumers and small businesses, said today complaints rose 48 per cent last year from the year before, to 990. That means the number of cases filed has tripled over three years, it said. Complaints against banks rose 21 per cent while those related to investments surged 73 per cent.

Last year’s complaints were the highest since the group was formed as the Canadian Banking Ombudsman in 1996. It is an independent agency set up by players in the financial sector.

“The global economic crisis, coupled with sharp declines in financial markets, gave rise to much of the increase in complaints we saw,” Ombudsman Douglas Melville said. “However, despite the improvement in markets over the last year, complaint volumes remain high. We expect this to continue.”

Gold price to rise, UBS forecasts

Gold has become the “ultimate currency,” UBS AG said today in a report that projects prices will hit $1,500 (U.S.) an ounce in the next 12 months and says anything below $1,200 represents a buying opportunity. “Since 2001 the price of gold has been on a relentless ascent against all major currencies,” UBS said. “With confidence in paper currency systems badly shaken in the financial crisis, gold, it seems, is reasserting its old role as the ultimate debt-free money ... Our gold model also indicates that concerns over the future of major monetary systems are becoming visible in the price of gold.”

Gold (GC-FT1,224.80-5.10-0.41%) pushed to a record above $1,250 an ounce yesterday, though fell back later in the day and dipped again today.

Noting that some 166,000 tons of gold are now held above ground, and that the metal is “virtually indestructible” and never really consumed, UBS said there’s no risk that the world will exhaust its supply. Mining produces most of the “new” gold, but that process is capital intensive and slow to respond to price changes, it said, and because the world’s gold stock is unavailable on the market, shifts in supply and demand heavily dictate the outlook for prices. “Against a broad basket of all major currencies, we note that gold’s value has remained remarkably stable over long periods of time,” UBS said.