The Canadian Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments (OBSI) said it responded to a record number of more than 10,000 public inquiries in 2022, with a significant year-over-year increase in fraud complaints.

OBSI is a national, independent, non-profit organization that handles disputes between individuals and financial services. In its 2022 annual report, OBSI recorded a 40 percent year-over-year increase in citizen inquiries. It also said the jump was mainly driven by banking complaints - which rose by 56 percent compared to 2021 - while investment complaints increased by eight percent.

OBSI also said it opened 1,151 cases last year, which is another new record and a six percent increase over the previous record set in 2021.

People complaining about their bank accounts represented 686 cases handled by OBSI in 2022 - up 33 percent from 514 cases in 2021.

In addition to the economic pressures resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, changes made last year to financial consumer protection laws led to more complaints being submitted to and handled through the system.

Also, according to the report, fraud was the main issue in complaints against banks in 2022. Thirty-one percent of banking cases opened by OBSI were related to fraud, up from 22 percent in 2021.

Nineteen percent of all banking complaints were related to service issues, while refunds from credit cards accounted for seven percent of all banking cases. OBSI adds complaints about interest rates, which increased from nine cases in 2021 to 26 cases last year.

Credit cards, personal chequing accounts, savings accounts, and electronic transfers were the main banking products that people filed complaints about with OBSI in 2022. Credit card complaints made up 32 percent of all banking cases, savings and chequing account complaints made up 15 percent, while complaints about electronic transfers accounted for 14 percent.

Investment cases:

Issues related to investments decreased by about 18 percent in 2022 compared to 2021.

According to the report, cases related to fraud jumped significantly to 11 percent of all investment cases in 2022, up from one percent in 2021.