Financial Consumer Protection

The Bank is mandated to protect consumers of services provided by Financial Services Providers (FSPs) under its jurisdiction. Consumers are protected to enhance their confidence and trust in the financial system. Specifically, trust and confidence can be achieved through adequate disclosure and transparency, protection of client information, fair treatment, effective complaints handling and redress mechanism; and provision of financial education and literacy.

Bank of Tanzania Financial Consumer Protection regulations, 2019

The Bank issued the Financial Consumer Protection Regulations, 2019 to guide financial services providers to have in place the effective complaints handling mechanism to resolve customer complaints. Further, the regulations prohibit FSPs from engaging in unfair or deceptive market practices. Furthermore, the Bank performs offsite and onsite market conduct supervision to ensure compliance with the regulations.

Market conduct Supervisory methodology and Tools

The purpose of market conduct supervision by the Bank is to strengthen the Bank’s ability to identify and mitigate risks in the market arising from unsound market practices by the FSPs.

• Market conduct onsite supervision

  The Bank undertakes market conduct supervision for financial service providers to analyze compliance with different consumer protection guidelines, circulars, recommendations, standards and principles depending on the institution’s risk assessment and profile.

• Market conduct offsite supervision

  The Bank conducts on desk analysis of financial service providers’ compliance with different consumer protection regulations, guidelines, circulars, recommendations, standards and principles; Compliance meetings with management of an FSP.

• Mystery Shopping

  The Bank conducts mystery shopping in order to identify problems in the market, inform regulations, and monitor the market for regulatory compliance. This is adopted at various points of market development, such as understand the customer experience following the rollout of new services or regulations, to investigate specific market issues, or on an ongoing basis to check continual compliance with existing regulations.

Complaints handling mechanism

• Complaints handling procedures

  Before lodging a complaint with the Bank, a consumer is required to exhaust the internal complaints resolution by the financial institution. A complaint must be lodged before expiry of two years after the cause of action arose.

  A financial institution required to resolve a consumer complaint within 14 days from the date of lodging your complaint. If unable to resolve a complaint within stipulated time, it shall immediately inform a consumer of its inability and reasons for such inability and what measures are being taken to resolve the complaint urgently and in any case not more than 7 days thereafter.

  When a consumer is dissatisfied with the decision of a financial institution or has not received a response from a financial institution within 14 days from the date of lodging a complaint, a consumer may within 14 days’ lodge a complaint with the Bank.

  When a consumer is aggrieved by the conduct of financial institutions, may lodge their complaints by following procedures provided in the (link, documents and system) (English and Swahili)

• Determination procedures

  The Bank delivers its decision on the matter within 45 days from the date of lodging the complaints with the Bank. In resolving complaints, the Bank is guided by provisions of applicable laws, case laws, underlying agreement and industry practices.

  As a remedy the Bank may compel a financial institution to issue an apology, change its practices, effect payment or compensate the complainant as the case may be.

Financial Education and Literacy Initiatives

• On schooling programs

  The Bank as the secretariat to the National Council for Financial Inclusion in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has developed toolkits for incorporating financial literacy in the education system in Tanzania (elementary to universities).

• Off schooling programs

  The Bank of Tanzania as the secretariat for National Council for Financial Inclusion has entered into collaborative arrangements with designated academic institutions to offer certification program for Training of Trainers. This program is for certifying financial educators who will ultimately support delivery of financial literacy to the public.