One example of legislation adopted in this manner is the Act on the Handling of Complaints by Financial Market Entities and on the Financial Spokesperson of 5 August 2015. The Act entered into force on 11 October 2015. The act is very important for the functioning of institutions operating on Poland’s financial market, and it will significantly modify the rules and standards of customer service on that market. It is a sort of paradox that the adoption of such an important piece of legislation went nearly unnoticed. The Act itself was adopted in a very speedy fashion for the Polish Parliament’s standards, as the MP bill was submitted to the Marshal of the Sejm on 15 March 2015, and the Act proper was passed as early as 5 August 2015.

The purpose of the Act

The main purpose of the Act is to impose the obligation on all financial institutions defined by the Act as financial market entities to receive complaints from their customers and to respond to them in a timely manner. In principle, this is the right approach if the market has not developed a uniform practice in this regard, and each institution has its own internal regulations – aside from financial institutions monitored by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority, who must comply with the requirements set out in the Act on the Terms and Conditions Governing the Handling of Complaints by Financial Institutions of 26 May 2015.

(...)