Complaints

The CMVM receives and assesses complaints from retail investors concerning activities, operations or entities subject to its supervision or related to the financial instrument markets in general. At CMVM, complaints are handled by the Investor Relations Department (DRI).

Complaints can be submitted i) by lodging said in the complaints book of the complainee entity (which forwards the complaint to the competent authority); ii) with the CMVM, preferably by completing the form. In this second format, the complaint must first be submitted in writing to the complainee entity, which must respond to the investor's statement within 15 working days. After this period, if no response is received, the investor may then lodge the claim directly with the CMVM. Investors may also lodge a complaint with the CMVM if they do not agree with the response of the complainee entity.

Depending on the content of each complaint, the CMVM will carry out the respective analysis by taking into consideration, the rules that regulate the financial markets. In this context, the CMVM may: 

• request additional information from the complainant or the complainee, in order to obtain a clear and complete information on the situation, and ask the complainee to assess the complaint in light of the conduct rules in question and to clarify the complainant on issues raised;
  
  
• request or recommend to the target entity to reconsider the complaint when the clarifications it has previously provided to the complainant are insufficient or when the CMVM considers the response to be inadequate;
  
  
• clarify the investor, without taking any other action whenever this is adequate and sufficient to resolve the claim and whenever there is no evidence of infringement by the target entity;
  
  
• communicate it to another FIN-NET member, whenever the target entity, activity or transaction referred to in the complaint should be considered as being mostly subject to the supervision of another European authority;
  
  
• communicate it to another national supervisory authority, whenever the target entity, the activity or the operation referred to in the complaint should be considered as falling within its respective duties.

Once all the necessary documents have been obtained, the analysis has been carried out and the complainant entity has been approached in order to meet the claimant's claim (if this is the case), the CMVM concluded the handling of the complaint. The conclusion of the complaint can be in the sense:

• From the target entity having resolved the complaint in an appropriate manner:

- Favourable to the claimant (including, in particular, cases where there has been reimbursement);

- Unfavourable for the claimant;

• The target entity has not adequately resolved the complaint;
  
  
• The complaint concerns a matter that is not within the competence of the CMVM;

If the examination of the complaint shows evidence of the breach of legal or regulatory rules whose observance is subject to its supervision, the CMVM may open a supervisory or administrative infraction process. In determining any fines to be applied, the CMVM may consider, in a favorable sense for the offender, the acts that the latter has taken with a view to repairing the losses of investors.

You can obtain more information about the nature of the CMVM's intervention in complaints through the answers to frequently asked questions, available here.