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Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS)
Consumer Complaints and Assistance
The Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), a federal government
agency within the U.S. Department of the Treasury, regulates savings
associations insured by the federal Savings Association Insurance
Fund (SAIF) as well as federally-chartered savings banks (FSBs).
If you have a complaint, you should try first to resolve it directly
by contacting an officer of the savings association, a senior
manager, or the association's consumer affairs representative.
Communicating directly with the association is usually the fastest
approach. Savings associations value consumers and should be responsive
to your concerns.
If you are unable to resolve your complaint directly, you may
contact the OTS, which is responsible for ensuring that the association
complies with federal consumer protection laws.
How to File a Complaint
To request assistance from the OTS, a complaint must be in writing
and must contain the consumer's signature. No special form is needed.
Your correspondence should be sent to the appropriate regional
office for your state (see below) and contain the following information:
- Your name, home address, e-mail address, telephone number,
in addition to your signature and date the complaint is submitted
to the OTS
- The association's full name and address
- The city and state of the association's home
office will also be helpful, since that determines the association's
supervisory region
- Type of account involved in the complaint -
checking, savings, certificate of deposit, money market or loan
- and account numbers, if applicable
- Description of the complaint, including specific
dates and the association's actions; copies of related documents
or correspondence are also helpful
- Dates of contact and, if possible, the names
of individuals contacted at the association with their responses
What Will OTS Do?
OTS will assign a case number to your complaint and send you
an acknowledgment that provides your case number. Your letter will
be reviewed by the consumer affairs staff, who will normally
send your letter to the savings association you have named. This
enables the savings association to compile information and records
in response to your letter. If additional information is needed,
OTS may contact you by telephone or in writing. If you have
questions regarding the resolution of your complaint, it is
helpful to identify your case number when you contact the OTS regional
office.
The savings association should address the issues raised in your
complaint and provide a written response to OTS upon the completion
of its internal investigation. In most cases the institution will
respond to you directly. OTS regional staff will analyze the association’s
response to ensure that your concerns have been addressed. OTS
will attempt to resolve your complaint within 60 days, unless additional
time is required to complete the investigation.
OTS reviews all complaints to ensure compliance with federal
laws and regulations against discrimination in lending and takes
additional investigative steps for such complaints. Complaints
alleging discrimination in housing finance that are covered by
the Fair Housing Act are also shared with the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development.
If the review indicates your complaint involved a violation
of Federal consumer laws or regulations, OTS will inform you of
any pertinent corrective action the savings association has been
directed to take. However, OTS does not have authority to adjudicate
contractual disputes or undocumented factual disputes between a
customer and a savings association. OTS also does not have authority
to resolve disagreements pertaining to savings association policies
and procedures that are a matter of management discretion and are
not addressed by OTS regulations. In such cases, if the association
does not make a voluntary adjustment, OTS will usually advise you
to consider obtaining legal counsel regarding your rights to resolve
the situation.
Regional OTS Consumer Affairs Offices
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Northeast Region
Consumer Affairs
Harborside Financial Center Plaza Five
Suite 1600
Jersey City, NJ 07311
(800) 253-2181
(201) 413-7541 (Fax)
(Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts,
New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania,
Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia)
Southeast Region
Consumer Affairs
P.O. Box 105217
Atlanta, GA 30348-5217
(404) 888-5631
(404) 888-8599 (Fax)
(Alabama, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois,
Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, Puerto
Rico, South Carolina, Virgin Islands, Virginia) |
Midwest Region
Consumer Affairs
P.O. Box 619027
Dallas/Ft.Worth, TX 75261- 9027
(972) 277-9564
(972) 277-9565 (Spanish)
(972) 277-9563 (Fax)
(Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi,
Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin)
West Region
Consumer Affairs
P.O. Box 7165
San Francisco, CA 94120
(650) 746-7098
(650) 746-7097 (Spanish)
(650) 746-7001 (Fax)
(Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho,
Montana, North Dakota, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, South
Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wyoming) |
You may also contact the Office of Thrift Supervision in Washington,
D.C. using its toll-free consumer number
1-800-842-6929 (TTY 1-800-877-8339), or by
email: consumer.complaint@ots.treas.gov
For further information, visit OTS's
website.
The information provided in this website is
not legal advice and should not be interpreted as legal advice.
This website is intended to provide a basic understanding of this
information in summary form. This information may not be comprehensive,
is subject to change, and may not apply to all individual circumstances.
Any information received here should be confirmed with the appropriate
government agencies or with an attorney, particularly as it relates
to your individual circumstances. Your use of this website indicates
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