1.  Complaint Handling Procedures

At Arab Bank Australia Limited, we are committed to providing you with superior service.  We place importance upon any issue you may have in regards to our products or service standards. In the event that you have a complaint with Arab Bank Australia Limited we ask that you advise our branch staff, who will attempt to resolve the matter immediately. In some cases where there are complicated facts or circumstances, or where we need to deal with third parties, it might take some time to investigate. If your problem cannot be resolved immediately to your satisfaction, we will acknowledge it and try to resolve it as soon as possible keeping you updated on the progress we make.

2.   Where and how to complain

3.   How we deal with complaints

We take complaints seriously because they give us important information about how we can better serve you. We have a Dispute Resolution Officer who is responsible for reviewing the complaints handling process to ensure complaints are dealt with expeditiously and appropriately.

A summary of the complaint handling process is as follows:

• The process is free of charge.
• Your complaint will be dealt with in an open, impartial, confidential and equitable manner.
• Highly skilled staff who have good understanding of your problem will deal with the complaint.
• Within 2 business days you will get an acknowledgement of your complaint. (unless your complaint has been resolved in less than 2 business days).
• Within 21 calendar days, we will inform you in writing of either the outcome of our investigations if the matter has been resolved. If there is a need for more time to complete our investigations, we will advise you of this and keep you updated on any progress.
• Where investigations proceed beyond 45 days, we will inform you of the reasons for the delay, provide a monthly update on the progress of our investigation and a date when a decision can be reasonably expected. We also offer you the option to take your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
• Where the complaint relates to a default notice or where it is an application for hardship variation or a request for postponement of enforcement proceedings different time periods apply. Please ask one of our staff members for further details.
• If you are not satisfied with the decision on your complaint, you may ask for the decision to be reviewed as a dispute by our Senior Management.Disputes acknowledgements and advices will be similar to the Complaints process. As an alternate option, or if the review process does not resolve your complaint, you can contact our external dispute resolution provider the Financial Ombudsman Services.

External dispute resolution is a free service established to provide you with an independent mechanism to resolve specific complaints. Our membership number for the Financial Ombudsman Service is 10003.

The Financial Ombudsman Service can be contacted by phone on 1300 780 808 or you can visit their website, www.fos.org.au or write to them at GPO Box 3, Melbourne, Victoria 3001.

Alternatively, you can go to court. You may wish to get legal advice, for example from your community legal centre or Legal Aid.

You can also contact ASIC, the regulator, for information on 1300 300 630 or through ASIC’s website at www.asic.gov.au.