A Study of Dispute Resolution Scheme under the Legal Systems of Financial Consumer Protection in Taiwan,the U.S.and the U.K.

• Main Authors: Fan-jung Liu, 劉凡融
• Other Authors: Chao-chih Lin
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/71242792729838379745

碩士 === 國立高雄大學 === 法律學系碩士班 === 102 === Because of the rapid development of the financial industry, the financial market, as well as its products and services, are involving increasing complexity and professional expertise. Compared with financial service providers, however, the consumers of financial services are facing an asymmetric situation in all aspects including financial strength, information and professional knowledge. This has led to a rising frequency of disputes over financial purchases. To achieve a balanced relationship between business owners and consumers, the Financial Supervisory Commission（FSC）of the Executive Yuan started working on the “Financial Service Act” in 2004 and proposed the draft of the “Financial Service Industry Act” in 2008, which, however, has not been approved. The FSC has since made continuous efforts in studying and communicating on these issues, and proposed the draft of the “Financial Consumer Protection Act”, endeavoring to strengthen consumer protection measures and establish a mechanism to settle financial purchase disputes by incorporating the relevant international legal practices and domestic rulings. The “Financial Consumer Protection Act” was approved by the Legislative Yuan after three readings and promulgated on December 30, 2011. Before the implementation of the “Financial Consumer Protection Act”, disputes on financial consumption were settled through various channels. These channels were however not well-integrated and were confusing to consumers. They caused various problems including a waste of social resources, lengthy procedures and a difficulty in monitoring the quality, etc. The financial crisis in 2008 has resulted in the loss of many domestic investors, as well as numerous disputes, in the process of remedy-seeking. The problems, therefore, have been emerging one after another. The purpose of this research, therefore, is to study and explore “The Mechanism for Settling Disputes under the Financial Consumer Protection Act”. The first chapter, the “introduction”, provides an explanation on the motivation, objectives, methodology and framework of the research. The second chapter deals with “The Problems about the Settlement of Financial Consumption Disputes Highlighted by the 2008 Financial crisis - taking the United Kingdom and the USA as examples”. It depicts the problems that have occurred in the United States and the United Kingdom after the financial crisis, due to the absence of a financial purchase dispute settlement mechanism, as well as the many financial reform policies taken by different countries afterwards to elevate the awareness of financial consumer protection. In addition to establishing an independent and integrated supervisory mechanism, the governments also had actively intervened in the financial transaction market, such as demanding more contractual obligations from the financial service providers and establishing designated complaint handling and ombudsman organizations to settle the fast-growing disputes of financial purchases. In the third chapter, a thorough study is made on the dispute settlement mechanism used in the country before the implementation of the Financial Consumer Protection Act. It is also pointed out in this chapter that the traditional practice of settling disputes through civil litigation is an overly lengthy and costly process, which may not successfully settle the disputes due to a lack of professionalism. An alternative is to settle the financial disputes through a designated dispute-settlement organization. This, however, involves a more-than-necessary number of channels that cause overlap and waste of resources. Furthermore, not all consumers can fully understand the difference between these channels and choose the most favorable option accordingly. A clear explanation is provided in this chapter on the relevant defects. The fourth chapter contains a discussion on the dispute settlement mechanism under the Financial Consumer Protection Act in Taiwan. In addition to explaining the legislative background and objectives of the Act, it also provides a detailed analysis and research on the scope of application, target groups of protection and the dispute settlement procedures. In the fifth and sixth chapters, the author has conducted a multi-faceted analysis and comparison of the financial purchase dispute settlement mechanisms in the United Kingdom and the United States. This is used as the basis to evaluate the dispute settlement mechanism under the Financial Consumer Protection Act in Taiwan, explore the potential disputes that may occur after the implementation of the Act and propose recommendations. The purpose is to provide a simple and fair dispute settlement mechanism for financial consumers. The seventh chapter contains a conclusion on all the points raised in the previous six chapters.