The reasons for the complaint should be related to the activities of the entities subject to the supervision of the Banco de Portugal or to how these entities operate.

The Banco de Portugal’s intervention in analysing complaints is restricted by law to verifying compliance with the rules governing the activity of credit institutions, financial companies, payment institutions and electronic money institutions, when offering retail banking products and services, and credit intermediaries.

The Banco de Portugal has no jurisdiction to assess complaints relating to:

• other financial products, even if they are sold at the counters of supervised institutions;

  • for issues relating to investment funds and securities, the competent authority is the Portuguese Securities Market Commission (CMVM);

  • for issues relating to insurance and pension funds, the competent authority is the Portuguese Insurance and Pension Funds Supervisory Authority (ASF).

• for issues relating to taxation, the competent authority is the Portuguese Tax and Customs Authority;

• the politeness of staff at the supervised institutions;

• the physical accessibility of the branches of institutions open to the public or other aspects related to Decree-Law No 163/2006, of 8 August 2006. In that case, contact the respective municipality;

• issues of an exclusively contractual nature or in situations where the customer has incurred damages. In the case of disputes where it is not possible to reach an agreement, judicial or arbitral dispute resolution is warranted;

• payment service providers operating in Portugal under the freedom to provide services. In this case, the bank customer should inquire about the payment service provider’s country of origin, consulting the list of institutions authorised by Banco de Portugal, and the entity in that country that has jurisdiction over complaints. The latter information can be obtained on the website of the European Banking Authority in the case of payment service providers based in the European Union;

• entities that act as pawnbrokers (i.e. granting credit secured by pledge over assets – typically, gold, silver or jewellery).