Complaints concerning financial institutions
If you have any kind of problem with a financial institution operating in the Czech Republic, you will find information on the steps to take to resolve it here. You can notify the Czech National Bank of the problem using the form available below, you can resolve the matter directly with the financial institution in question, or you can contact a court or an entity providing out-of-court dispute resolution.
If you are not satisfied with the actions of a financial institution, first contact it directly and submit your complaint to it.
As a rule, you can submit complaints to financial institutions:
- in writing by post
- at a branch of the financial institution
- by e-mail
- by telephone
- via the financial institution’s website (e.g. through the internet banking service operated by banks)
The financial institution should resolve your complaint within 30 days (this may take longer in justified cases). You will find more details in the complaints resolution rules of the financial institution in question, and usually also in the contract you concluded with that financial institution.
If you do not agree with the result of the investigation by the financial institution, you can appeal or contact the ombudsman for the financial institution in question, who will then re-examine your complaint.
If you are still not satisfied with the resolution of your complaint by the financial institution, you may contact a court or an entity providing out-of-court dispute resolution.
If you are not satisfied with the resolution of your complaint by a financial institution, you can contact:
- courts
- the Financial Arbitrator
- the Czech Trade Inspection Authority or another entity authorised by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic to provide out-of-court settlement of consumer disputes
Courts
You may put your dispute with a financial institution regarding your individual rights from a provided financial service before a court with local and subject-matter jurisdiction.
Financial Arbitrator
The Financial Arbitrator is an out-of-court dispute resolution entity for settling financial market consumer disputes. The Financial Arbitrator resolves, free of charge, disputes between consumers and financial institutions providing or intermediating payment services, electronic money services, loans, collective investment, investment, life insurance, building savings and foreign currency exchange. You can find more information about the activities of the Financial Arbitrator and proceedings before it at https://www.finarbitr.cz.
Czech Trade Inspection Authority and other authorised entities
As a consumer you can also contact, free of charge, the Czech Trade Inspection Authority or another entity authorised by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic to perform out-of-court settlement of consumer disputes. Unlike a court and the Financial Arbitrator, the proceedings are not intended to result in the issue of a binding decision on your dispute – the goal is to help the parties reach a conciliatory settlement of the dispute and come to an agreement.
Find out when you can receive assistance from a court or an entity providing out-of-court dispute resolution.
Complaints from the public regarding actions by financial institutions are a very important source of information for the Czech National Bank about their behaviour, and can be of use for the conduct of financial market supervision. Your complaint can contribute towards ensuring that the financial sector in the Czech Republic operates properly and transparently. However, the Czech National Bank does not have the authority to address private law disputes and cannot therefore interfere in the resolution of individual disputes between supervised entities and their clients or decide on such disputes.
- A financial institution has breached legislation the compliance with which the Czech National Bank is responsible for supervising.
- A financial institution has breached consumer rights.
- A financial institution has provided services without authorisation from the Czech National Bank.
- A financial institution has provided you with misleading information about products and services, has charged you fees contrary to your contract, has promised you something it then failed to provide, etc.
The deadline for settlement of a submission sent to the Czech National Bank is 30 days from the date of delivery. The Czech National Bank does not deal with anonymous submissions, repeated submissions and other non-standard submissions, e.g. those which have incomprehensible or confused content, contain vulgar expressions or are sent for information only.
The Czech National Bank receives several thousand complaints or other notifications from the public relating to the activities of financial institutions every year. The Czech National Bank evaluates each of them and uses the relevant ones in the conduct of financial market supervision.
The Czech National Bank is bound by a statutory confidentiality duty; therefore, it cannot provide you with specific information about the actions it takes in a specific case. Although transparency is important for the Czech National Bank, it cannot provide detailed information about the conduct of financial market supervision, for example on the commencement of an investigation or on the details of its communication with a financial institution.
Information contained in complaints from the public is analysed to provide indications of the activities of financial market institutions that could result in breach of the statutory duties supervised by the Czech National Bank. The Czech National Bank also performs investigations after receiving complaints from the public, during which it examines compliance of duties by the relevant institutions in the given market segment.
If it identifies shortcomings on the part of a financial institution, the Czech National Bank may impose remedial measures or fines, for example.
Not every complaint will lead to an investigation by the Czech National Bank.
You can find more information regarding the tasks and activities of the Czech National Bank relating to its supervision of financial market entities, including the relevant legislation, at https://www.cnb.cz/en/supervision-financial-market/
You can also send your complaint by e-mail to podatelna@cnb.cz, by post to Senovážná 3, 115 03 Praha 1, or to the data box – data box ID: 8tgaiej.
Send a complaint using a web form.
Take a look at the frequently asked questions that the Czech National Bank receives from the public, and you might find an answer relevant to your situation.