Legal

BFC Customer Complaints Policy

Policy

BFC prides itself on excellent customer service and is committed to handling complaints speedily, efficiently, fairly and confidentially. We believe that all customer feedback, both positive and negative, presents an opportunity for improving our standards.

A customer complaint can be defined as any expression of dissatisfaction, made by a BFC customer, regarding any products or services provided by BFC. This policy covers all written complaints, or unresolved telephone complaints, complaints raised in a face to face meeting or by a third party acting for that customer, such as an intermediary, legal representative or regulatory body.

All such customer complaints will be recorded on the Customer Complaints System and managed in accordance with the Customer Complaints procedures.

Non serious verbal complaints should be resolved at the frontline in accordance with the principles of this policy and will not be recorded on the Customer Complaints System.

Making a Complaint

Below are the contact details to make a complaint to BFC:

Customer Service Manager
Bahrain Financing Company
P.O. Box 243
Manama
Kingdom of Bahrain

Tel: +973 1722 8888
Email: customerservice@bfc.com.bh

Procedures

Any complaint received is recorded and documented, in full on the Customer Complaint System.

Complaints are usually acknowledged within 5 working days. The customer is provided with an explanation about how the complaint will be handled, who is the person appointed to investigating the complaint and any actions required of the customer.

The Customer Service Team Leader is the appointed Complaint Resolution Officer (CRO) at BFC. All complaints are passed to the relevant department manager for investigation and they are responsible for drafting responses to customers and/or regulators and copying in the CRO. Senior management will determine if certain complaints must be brought to the attention of the Board more often or if the response to the customer and/or regulator should come from the Board.

The CRO is responsible for keeping a central file of all complaints correspondence and updating the Customer Complaint System.

Complaints will be handled with utmost transparency, fairness and promptly keeping the customer informed of any progress.

Once the complaint has been actively investigated a final comprehensive response will be provided to the customer either verbally or in writing (if applicable) within 20 business days. The final response must:

a) accept (or partially accept) the complaint and where appropriate offer compensation or other forms of redress; or

b) reject (or partially reject) the complaint, informing the customer with a full explanation of the company’s position.

If at any stage the customer is still not satisfied they have the right to refer the complaint to the Central Bank of Bahrain. The contact details are as follows:

Central Bank of Bahrain
PO Box 27
Manama
Kingdom of Bahrain

Tel: +973 1754 7777
Fax: +973 1753 5673
Email: compliance@cbb.gov.bh

If a complaint is raised by the CBB on behalf of a customer it will be dealt with as follows:

a) Receipt of the complaint will be acknowledged within 5 business days.

b) If the complaint has not gone through our formal customer complaints procedures as listed above, the complaint will be entered into our customer complaint system and the CBB will be kept abreast of this, and provided with regular progress updates.

c) If the complaint has been reported in accordance with BFC’s formal procedures, the outcome will be reviewed, and a response will be to the CBB within 20 business days.

If there are changes to any of the timescales mentioned, the customer will be informed accordingly

Compensation

When a complaint is justified, the company will take appropriate remedies that are fair to both the customer and BFC. This policy only covers compensation for financial losses in real terms for the principle amount of the transaction, the commission amount and any foreign currency exchange rate benefit.

This policy does not cover and is not applicable in respect of claims made by customers on account of opportunity losses or damages or claims pertaining to reputation loss.

Compliance

Anti-Money Laundering & Combating the Financing of Terrorism Policy

Money Laundering Overview

Money laundering is the process by which criminals attempt to conceal the true origin and ownership of the proceeds of their criminal activities. If undertaken successfully, it also allows the perpetrator(s) to maintain control of those proceeds and ultimately, provides a legitimate cover for their source of income.

Policy Statement

Bahrain Financing Company (BFC) is committed to preventing money laundering and terrorist financing. Our procedures comply with the Financial Crime Regulation of the Central Bank of Bahrain. We also monitor and adhere to other major international anti-money laundering recommendations and programs such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the United Nations and European Union sanctions and the Officer of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC).

We aim to maintain the highest operating standards at all times by undertaking regular reviews of our procedures and controls to ensure we are compliant with the relevant laws, regulations and standards of good practice. In order to achieve full compliance with the Regulation the company has in place the following:

• An appointed Money Laundering Reporting Officer
• Anti-money laundering policies and procedures
  • Staff training program on money laundering awareness and their criminal liabilities
• Know Your Customer (KYC)
• Clear reporting lines for suspected money laundering
• Suspicious activity reporting to the authorities
• Record keeping for ten years after business is concluded