Other Sections

Supervision

Market conduct supervision refers to the process of monitoring and evaluating the way financial institutions deal with financial consumers when conducting their business in line with the Registrar of Financial Institutions’ regulations on prescribed best market conduct practices as contained in the financial services laws and international best practice.

The Registrar monitors and supervises regulated financial institutions’ business practices through off-site analysis, mystery surveillances and on-site examinations.

Off-site surveillance

Financial institutions are required by the consumer protection and market conduct legal and regulatory framework to submit complaints returns on quarterly basis. Analysis of the complaints returns unfolds trends on common issues that erode financial consumers’ trust and confidence in the financial industry and how concerned financial institutions deal with such issues. This informs the Registrar’s planning and implementation of risk-based mystery surveillances and on-site examinations and development of relevant policies and regulations.

On-site examination

The overall objective of on-site examinations is to ascertain that financial institutions are compliant with market conduct regulatory and supervisory frameworks. This examination focuses on assessing financial institutions’ transparency and disclosure of information on products and services, market conduct internal controls, product suitability, communication and interaction with consumers, advertisements and published information. The outcomes inform supervisory actions on the financial institution and policy direction

Mystery Surveillance

Mystery surveillance involves the use of individuals called mystery shoppers trained to experience and measure customer service processes. Mystery Surveillance aims to assess transparency and disclosure of information by financial institutions through verbal disclosure of key terms of products or services and issuance of key fact statements prior to accessing a product or service. It also aims to assess existing concerns about compliance with legislation and regulation by a specific financial institution or sector. Mystery Surveillance verifies such concerns and identifies the key issues involved for the attention of the office of the Registrar.