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Meridian Credit Union review: "...It is my opinion that Meridian Credit Union had and still has a corporate responsibility to inform their Membership of the following; The facts behind a 9-year back-office system challenge.What they found and what they tried to fix. And the potential impacts of those mistakes on their members' financial well-being and Account Information and Tax information. It is also my opinion that Meridian Credit Union has an obligation to inform its Members that Meridian was investigated by the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO), the newly formed Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA), and is currently under investigation by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada..."
Read the full Meridian Credit Union review on PissedConsumer: https://www.pissedconsumer.com/company/meridian-credit-union/impacts-of-of-meridians-undisclosed-back-office-technical-mistakes-202110273012858.html
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0:00
My complaint is against Meridian Credit Union
0:04
Meridian Credit Union is Canada's second largest credit union. And the complaint foundation is really around my discovery of incorrect account holder information
0:15
while I was the acting power of attorney for my father who suffered from dementia
0:21
It's been a long journey to simply get Meridian Credit Union to provide me with the information to correct those mistakes
0:28
And unfortunately, that journey has led me to a number of investigations, one with the Ontario Regulator and the second currently with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner
0:43
My goal for this case is to simply get my father's information corrected
0:47
The information that needs to be corrected is the information for tax purposes
0:52
The information that was not correct through this system mistake was the information affected for my father's tax returns
1:03
And I'm hoping and I'm really hoping that I can get to a result where I can help other Meridian members understand the potential consequences of these undisclosed mistakes that happened within the Meridian Credit Union back office technical system
1:22
my complaint um is against meridian credit union um and just to give you some background
1:30
meridian credit union is uh canada's second largest credit union um my complaint began
1:38
when i had the responsibility to be my father's power of attorney my father was actually
1:45
diagnosed and suffered from dementia. So I took over that responsibility. And as I started to
1:53
get involved with managing my father's financial affairs, I discovered some discrepancies
2:01
on his account statements with Meridian Credit Union. So that was the backdrop of the beginning
2:11
of this journey. Basically, there was the information on statements. I had statements
2:18
from my dad from his files. And when I received, started to receive additional statements from the
2:25
bank, there was some significant discrepancies on the information on the actual statements
2:32
themselves. So I approached the local branch that he went to and sat down with the assistant branch
2:39
manager and brought those concerns to her attention. And she informed me that yes, indeed
2:46
that there had been some mistakes, but they were resolved. And the mistakes were due to a back
2:52
office system glitch. And that's pretty much all she told me at the time that there had been a
2:59
back office system glitch. And yes, it affected the accuracy of my father's bank statements
3:06
but they had been corrected. So I left there kind of taking that as the accepted response
3:16
and unfortunately as I dug into a little bit deeper I started to realize that these mistakes
3:23
were much greater than what she proposed to me and it actually created a lot of concern
3:30
regarding the information on the account statements. I continued my investigation and I decided to go beyond the branch manager
3:39
And what's really interesting about this case that I found out, I'd actually read an article in Canada's national newspaper, The Globe and Mail
3:49
And the article was actually reporting the frustrations of consumers when it came to forwarding complaints to financial institutions
3:58
And in that article, the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada stated that 90% of consumer complaints to a financial institution go unresolved because the consumers become so frustrated with the actual process that needs to take place to solve their complaint
4:23
and that only 10% of consumers really continue to follow up and continue with their journey
4:33
Many consumers also do not decide to get senior management of a financial institution involved as well
4:41
So I read that article and I said OK I going for it I going to I not going to be in that 90 I going to be in that 10 So I wrote a letter to the CEO of Meridian Credit Union and expressed my concerns And that
4:57
letter led to a meeting with three executives at the Meridian head office. So I kind of got to the
5:06
top, if you will. And I was kind of proud of that. I met with the executives. I brought my
5:12
complaint forward and the documentations that I had on file. My father was a 50-year-plus member
5:19
with Meridian Credit Union. I thought that that would be a catalyst for getting their kind of
5:24
interest in helping me resolve this. And I left that meeting extremely disappointed
5:31
I pretty much got the same response I got from the branch. I didn't get any further information. I did get a promise, though, that they would look further into my concerns. And they did. And they got back to me with a letter saying that everything that they presented to me, there should be no concerns, that the information on file had been corrected
5:54
and if I had any further concerns that I could take it up with the regulator of credit unions
6:01
and that at this point they considered my consumer case against them and my concerns closed
6:10
So that's where I stood. I went to the top, didn't get very far, but decided to press on and I did
6:16
contact the regulator of credit unions for Ontario, who is the Financial Services Commission of
6:23
Ontario and FISCO for short. They on my behalf opened up a investigation against Meridian to
6:34
take a look at my concerns which was fantastic. When they approached Meridian Meridian's first
6:41
response to the regulator was the following and I'd like to read it to you because it was really
6:46
eye-opening to me and I quite frankly have done a lot of research to find out whether this actually
6:53
is a legal reality but their response to the regulator was in addition we advise that we have
6:59
sought external legal counsel in this matter our solicitor advises us that is a well-established
7:08
principle in banking law that statements of account are not conclusive evidence of this of the facts
7:17
set out in them. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm sure that when you read your bank statement
7:24
you would like it to be 100% true of the facts laid out in the bank statement that
7:30
that there is no other information to be provided to you. That is it. So I became very concerned
7:37
about that statement. And I believe that the regulator did too. So they pressed on in the
7:42
investigation. And that led to a disclosure from Meridian Credit Union to the regulator that
7:53
in fact, they had an undisclosed nine-year system challenge, back office challenge
8:02
And that back office challenge, in fact, produced incorrect account holder information on statements
8:11
and it also created incorrect T5 tax return statements
8:21
And for reference, a T5 tax return is for tax purposes when you do your year-end tax filing
8:29
And in Canada, as you know, you would receive a T5 for any interest-bearing accounts that you have with your bank
8:37
So any accounts that make interest, that's taxable income, the bank issues you a T5 bank statement. You submit that to Revenue Canada for your tax purposes
8:51
And the reality is, is that this back office issue not only created account information errors
8:59
but T5 tax return errors. So I looked into this and sure enough, yeah, my dad was affected by
9:08
these incorrect account holder information and the T5 tax information that he had been submitting
9:15
to the Revenue Canada. So pretty disturbing. When I found this out, they actually said
9:24
and I read this to you because I think this is important because the reality is they went from saying that you know bank statements aren the true facts of what the account holder information is to this statement to the regulator They said technical limitations in our computer banking system at the time meant that products held under joint accounts had to be manually updated
9:50
The joint benefit code at the time of opening, because this step was manual, there was an obvious risk of human error
10:00
And if it was not updated properly, there was inconsistencies in the documents that were reported
10:10
I mean, this was pretty eye-opening to me. The question is that I have is why wasn't I informed of that when I approached them
10:22
If I was informed of that when I approached them, I could have fixed my dad's tax returns
10:28
I could have corrected those mistakes and I would have needed Meridian to help me correct those mistakes
10:36
But here's the issue. My question is, why didn't Meridian inform their 370,000 members of these mistakes
10:45
And to this day, they still have not informed their 370,000 members
10:51
In other words, a T5 tax return statement, it's not an easy document to understand
10:59
Unfortunate to have an accountant that can help me understand that document
11:03
But a man that has dementia wouldn't understand that document. Maybe an elderly member of their bank maybe wouldn't be able to understand that document
11:14
A young investor who bought their first interest-bearing account probably had no idea what that document is
11:20
it's their responsibility not only not only to disclose these mistakes but the facts behind
11:29
those mistakes and and to help their members correct those mistakes if they identify the
11:38
mistakes i think that's the right thing to do now meridian credit union has a value statement
11:43
and that value statement is we'll always have our members backs well i don't think they had my dad's
11:50
back. They didn't have my back and they certainly didn't have Meridian's members as a whole
11:56
their back. They also currently talk about what they call what if, the what if in life. Well
12:04
and how to navigate through life's what ifs. Well, my dad had a what if, and that was dementia
12:10
And Meridian Credit Union didn't help me help my dad navigate through that what if
12:15
his financial information was incorrect what could we do to ensure that it was correct and and i in
12:24
my role as power of attorney could help it so that's where we are now unfortunately unfortunately
12:31
my research led me to the fact that the regulator the regulator of credit unions in ontario
12:37
does not have the enforcement power to force Meridian to inform their members
12:46
So my case now sits with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
12:53
And that's who is now working on my case. And the case has evolved into a privacy issue
12:59
In other words, Meridian Credit Union has a right, has a right and still does have a right
13:07
to correct my father's tax T5 tax return slips. In other words, that information, incorrect information
13:17
was sent to a third party, Revenue Canada. And under the laws of privacy, in fact, I can share it with you
13:27
because I think it's interesting. They refer to it as PIPEDA principle 4.9.5
13:36
which states, when an individual successfully demonstrates the inaccuracy or incompleteness of personal information, the organization shall amend the information as required
13:50
Depending upon the nature of the information challenged, amendment involves the correction
13:56
deletion, or addition of information. In other words, Meridian Credit Union has to help me amend
14:04
this information and for some reason they've decided not to what's even more disturbing to me
14:12
personally is that meridian has hired a law firm to represent them in the case with the office of the privacy commissioner to help them defend themselves in that privacy case I just find it really difficult that Meridian has not only not
14:32
disclosed these mistakes to their 370,000 members, their members have no idea that they're spending
14:40
their members money to hire a law firm to support them in a legal case with the OPC
14:50
So my journey continues. And my journey continues because I feel that
14:57
the 370,000 members of Meridian Credit Union have a right to be given the benefit of the doubt
15:05
on whether they were affected by these system mistakes. And I believe that my father
15:12
who could not protect himself to understand whether information was correct or not correct
15:19
has the right to have those corrections made. So I will continue this journey
15:24
and I'm hoping that the members will become aware of it and Meridian will live up to its values
15:33
of having their members back. That's it. I've never seeked any financial, you know, kind of payment on this. It's not about any kind of financial, you know, loss. There was financial loss to my dad, but it's not about that
15:51
um i haven't got a lawyer i haven't taken anybody to court my goal is to hold meridian accountable
16:02
accountable to their values um and i work with a lot of organizations and i believe that companies
16:09
put their values in the wall and they live by them or they don't and i find that meridian credit union
16:16
needs to be held accountable as an organization to tell the truth and to simply give their members
16:25
the benefit of the debt. My father was an Ontario Hydro employee. Meridian Credit Union was the
16:32
credit unions of Ontario Hydro. And I believe that he was a loyal to them as a member and they
16:41
should be loyal to him so my goal is for meridian to acknowledge to their members to publicly
16:48
acknowledge to their members this nine-year system mistake to present to their members the facts
16:55
behind the mistakes to present their to their members what their members need to look for and
17:02
to give their members the benefit of the doubt to come into the branch and sit down with them
17:06
to ensure that they were not affected by these mistakes. And if they were, that Meridian do everything in its power
17:14
to help them correct the mistakes of the past. That's my goal
17:20
That's what I believe should be ethically done by this organization. So a couple of things
17:27
Really look at your account statements. I think we get them in the mail
17:31
and sometimes we don't really look at them. speak to your financial institution and ask them, is the information on this statement
17:41
absolutely correct? Is there anything that I'm not seeing or is there anything that I'm missing
17:47
And here's the big one for anybody, young investors, anybody that has investment accounts
17:55
that could be a guaranteed investment certificate. It could be any account that earns interest in
18:02
your bank to understand your T5 tax return slip. Okay. To understand that slip so that when you
18:13
file your tax returns, you're doing it correctly. That's the advice I can give you. We live in a
18:20
complex world when it comes to our own personal finances. And it's very important that we educate
18:28
educate ourselves on what is being presented to us. And the final piece of advice for any of you
18:36
and I hope you'll never have to have the role of power of attorney for a friend or a family member
18:41
but for any of you that have a loved one that may need you in that role to protect them financially
18:47
do your due diligence, really take a look at their information and make sure it's correct
18:53
And more importantly, remember that in that role, it's not about changing things on their behalf
19:01
It's about doing things in the way that they would want them to be done
19:05
There's my advice
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