The Danish Financial Complaint Board (hereinafter ‘the Complaint Board’) (Det finansielle ankenævn) was set up by Finance Denmark (Finans Danmark), the Association of Danish Mortgage Banks (Realkreditrådet) and the Danish Investment
Institution (Investering Danmark) and the Danish Consumer Council THINK (Forbrugerrådet Tænk).
The Complaint Board handles complaints concerning private customer relationships. The Complaint Board may handle complaints from businesses if the complaints do not differ significantly from complaints concerning private customer relationships. The Complaint Board does not handle complaints submitted by companies.
The Complaint Board handles complaints against Danish and Faeroese banks and their subsidiaries located in Denmark, e.g. finance companies. You can submit a complaint against a finance company not owned by a bank to Nævnenes Hus, Toldboden 2, 8800 Viborg.
The Complaint Board does not handle complaints against bank subsidiaries that are insurance companies. If you want to submit a complaint against an insurance company, you can do so through the Insurance Complaints Board, www.ankeforsikring.dk.
However, the Complaint Board can consider your complaint if it concerns advice given by a bank about insurances.
The Complaint Board also considers complaints about Danish branches of foreign banks.
Complaints about Greenlandic banks fall outside the jurisdiction of the Complaint Board.
Your complaint may concern all aspects of the relationship between a bank and yourself. However, the Complaint Board does not handle complaints regarding matters such as the conduct of a bank employee, a bank’s marketing practices or other general issues.
Your complaint may also concern matters occurring before an actual customer relationship has been established.
The Complaint Board may refuse to handle your complaint if it does not concern a specific financial dispute.
If you want to complain against a bank’s disregard of the rules on Good Business Practice for Financial Undertakings (Executive Order no. 1094 of 14 September 2015), you must submit a complaint to the Danish FSA. Find more details here.
The Complaint Board refuses to handle complaints that have already been decided by a court of law. For other grounds for refusal according to which the Complaint Board may or must refuse to handle a complaint, see articles 3-6 of the Statutes of the Complaint Board here.
Before submitting a complaint to the Complaint Board, you must have complained to the bank and had your complaint dismissed, received an unsatisfactory answer or no answer to your complaint within five weeks of the bank’s receipt of your complaint. All banks have a complaints manager. Your bank branch can inform you who this person is.
When you are ready to submit your complaint, you fill in a complaint form via the Complaint Board’s website. You must pay a complaint fee of DKK 200, which we will repay if you succeed with your complaint in full or in part, if you withdraw your complaint or if the Complaint Board cannot handle your complaint.
We have planned the complaints procedure so that you do not need to retain a lawyer or legal adviser.
However, you may at any time decide to seek independent advice or be represented or assisted by a third party. If you choose to retain a lawyer to act on your behalf, you should note that neither party must pay costs to the other party in relation to the complaints procedure.
Click here to submit a complaint.
If you do not have the possibility of submitting your complaint via the Complaint Board’s website, you can contact the Complaint Board’s secretariat on tel. no. +45 35 43 63 33. Telephone hours Monday-Friday 10:00 am to 12:00 pm, or send an e-mail to sek@fanke.dk.
Once the preparatory stage of the processing has been completed, the Complaint Board handles your complaint at a meeting of the Complaint Board.
You must submit the details of your complaint in writing and upload them to the Complaint Board’s complaint portal, which you will be able to access immediately after your case has been opened.
You can send your complaint and the case documents in Danish or English. Your complaint will be handled in Danish, and the decision will similarly be drawn up in Danish.
The average complaint processing time depends on how long the preparation takes. Once all information relating to a case has become available, the Complaint Board expects to make a decision within 90 days. The average processing time is currently six months from the date the complaint was submitted.
The parties are not bound by the Complaint Board’s decision. However, if the decision is not in the bank’s favour, the bank must notify the Complaint Board within 30 days of the date on which notice of the decision was given to the bank that it does not intend to comply with the decision. If the bank does not react within 30 days of being given notice of the decision, you can have the decision enforced against the bank.
If the bank does not want to comply with the decision, the Complaint Board will notify you about this. You will also be informed about your options for taking the complaint to court, including the possibility of having the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority at Nævnenes Hus, Toldboden 2, 8800 Viborg, telephone no. +45 72 40 56 00, e-mail: nh@naevneneshus.dk, take the complaint to court on your behalf and the possibilities for enforcing the decision.
Read more about the enforcement possibilities here.
If you do not succeed with your complaint, you will, when relevant, be advised about the possibilities for having the case re-opened or taking it to court. You should note that your complaint may become time-barred if you institute any proceedings later than one year after the Complaint Board’s decision.
You will find all the decisions made by the Complaint Board on the Danish part of the Complaint Board’s website.
The chairmanship of the Complaint Board is composed of a Supreme Court judge (chairman) and two vice-chairmen, a Supreme Court judge and a High Court judge, respectively.
Finance Denmark and the Danish Consumer Council Think appoint the other members of the Complaint Board. A list of the members of the Complaint Board can be seen here.
The members of the Complaint Board are appointed for a term of three years and are eligible for reappointment.
Refer also to the Statutes of the Complaint Board, which can be seen here.