Serving and Protecting Customers

Providing exceptional service means helping our customers become financially better off, but also protecting their privacy, addressing financial crimes such as money laundering, improving accessibility of services for the elderly and the disabled, and measuring our success through customer surveys and complaints procedures.

In 2008, we instituted a number of initiatives in these areas:

Introduced chip card technology for debit and credit card transactions, which provides enhanced security against fraud;
Enhanced our Global Anti-Money Laundering/Anti-Terrorist Financing Program to meet new regulatory requirements and improve the Bank's customer information systems;
Launched a revised Privacy Agreement dealing with issues such as limits on the collection, use and disclosure of personal information;
Continued efforts to accommodate persons with disabilities in the delivery and design of products and facilities, including branch renovations and new ABM unit features; and
Ensured that new/renovated Scotiabank branches met Canadian Standard Association (CSA) accessibility guidelines, and most other branches upgraded over the next few years also meet these guidelines.

Supporting UN Guidelines

Scotiabank supports the United Nations Guidelines for Consumer Protection, including the right to:

safety
choice
be heard
be informed
consumer education
consumer redress
basic needs
privacy

We also adhere to a number of voluntary codes of conduct and public commitments designed to protect consumer interests on issues ranging from credit and debit card fraud to relations with small and medium-sized businesses.

See our voluntary codes of conduct/public commitments for additional information on our efforts to protect