Office of Thrift Supervision
Customer Service Plan
Consumer Assistance Guide
Do you have a complaint regarding a savings association insured by the federal Savings Association Insurance Fund (SAIF) or regarding a federally-chartered savings bank (FSB)? The following information is provided to assist you in resolving the complaint.
Can We Help?
In most cases these institutions are regulated by the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), a federal government agency within the U.S. Department of the Treasury. If you are in doubt, each association branch office displays several posters that provide the name and address of its regulatory agency.
If you have a complaint, you should try first to resolve it directly by contacting an officer of the savings association.
If for some reason you are unable to resolve your problem in this way, you may wish to contact senior management or the association's consumer affairs representative for further assistance. Communicating directly with the association is usually the fastest approach.
Savings associations value consumers and will be responsive to your concerns.
If you are unable to resolve your complaint directly, you may contact the OTS, which is responsible for ensuring that the association complies with federal consumer protection laws.
What You Should Do
To request assistance from the OTS, a complaint must be in writing and must contain the consumer's signature. No special form is needed. Your correspondence should contain the following information:
- Your name, home address, e-mail address, telephone number, in addition to your signature and date the complaint is submitted to the OTS;
- The association's full name and address.
- The city and state of the association's home office will also be helpful, since that determines the association's supervisory region;
- Type of account involved in the complaint - checking, savings, certificate of deposit, money market or loan - and account numbers, if applicable;
- Description of the complaint, including specific dates and the association's actions; copies of related documents or correspondence are also helpful;
- Dates of contact and, if possible, the names of individuals contacted at the association with their responses.
The OTS consumer affairs staff in our regional offices respond to complaints. The address of the OTS regional offices and the states for which they are responsible are provided below. You may click on *Regional Offices for a color map.
What We Will Do
We will assign a case number to your complaint and send you an acknowledgment that provides your case number. Your letter will be reviewed by our consumer affairs staff who will normally send your letter to the savings association you have named. This enables the savings association to compile information and records in response to your letter. If additional information is needed, we may contact you by telephone or in writing. If you should have any questions regarding the resolution of your complaint, it is helpful to identify your case number when you contact the OTS regional office.
The savings association should address the issues raised in your complaint and provide a written response to OTS upon the completion of its internal investigation. In most cases the institution will respond to you directly. OTS regional staff will analyze the association’s response to ensure that your concerns have been addressed. We will attempt to resolve your complaint within 60 days, unless additional time is required to complete our investigation, and processing or analysis of your complaint.
We review all complaints to ensure compliance with federal laws and regulations against discrimination in lending and take additional investigative steps for such complaints. Complaints alleging discrimination in housing finance that are covered by the Fair Housing Act are also shared with the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
What Is The Result?
If our review indicates your complaint involved a violation of Federal consumer laws or regulations, we will inform you of any pertinent corrective action the savings association has been directed to take. However, we do not have authority to adjudicate contractual disputes or undocumented factual disputes between a customer and a savings association. We also do not have authority to resolve disagreements pertaining to savings association policies and procedures that are a matter of management discretion and are not addressed by OTS regulations. In such cases, if the association does not make a voluntary adjustment, we will usually advise you to consider obtaining legal counsel regarding your rights to resolve the situation.
Office of Thrift Supervision
Regional Consumer Affairs Offices
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You may also contact the Office of
Thrift Supervision in Washington, D.C., toll-free consumer number 1-800-842-6929;
TTY Users call through Federal Relay at 1-800-877-8339
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Northeast
Region Suite 1600 Jersey City, NJ 07311 (800) 253-2181 (201) 413-7541
(Fax) Southeast Region (404) 888-8599 (Fax) (Alabama, District of Columbia,
Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, North
Carolina, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Virgin Islands, Virginia) |
Midwest Region (972) 277-9565 (Spanish) (972) 277-9563 (Fax) (Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin) West Region (650) 746-7098 (650) 746-7097 (Spanish) (650) 746-7001 (Fax) |
Consumer Assistance Guide
Updated July 2003