WASHINGTON --The Office of the
Comptroller of the Currency said today it is taking steps to significantly
increase the hours its Customer Assistance Group is open to receive calls from
consumers.
“The OCC’s Customer
Assistance Group has been a tremendous success in helping national bank
customers with questions or problems,” said Comptroller of the Currency John C.
Dugan. “I’m very pleased that we have
found a flexible and efficient way to expand the hours that consumers can reach
us by telephone.”
“By taking advantage of
domestic private sector resources, we will be able to expand telephone hours to
better serve all consumers, especially those on the west coast,” Ombudsman
Samuel P. Golden said. “It is our goal to expand telephone coverage to 12 hours
a day from the current seven,” said Mr. Golden, who oversees the OCC’s consumer
assistance facility.
Mr.
Golden said that the OCC issued a Statement of Objectives yesterday to begin
the process of seeking private-sector support for the OCC’s consumer facility. The vendor will handle routine matters, such
as providing materials to satisfy non-complex questions, obtaining information
from callers that is necessary to open a case file, routing the caller to the
appropriate OCC specialist and providing the status of an open case. In addition, the OCC receives a number of
calls that pertain to institutions not regulated by the OCC, and the vendor’s
employees will be able to direct those callers to the appropriate regulatory agency.
“Consumers with questions or concerns about a national bank will
still talk to one of our trained OCC professionals,” Mr. Golden said. “But the vendor support will greatly
increase the efficiency of the process and will help us leverage the skills of
our staff and improve the overall quality and level of customer service.”
Many governmental and
private sector organizations successfully use third-party vendors to support
their call centers, Mr. Golden said. The company selected will be a domestic
concern that will support the OCC from a U.S.-based call center, he said.
Mr. Golden said the
vendor selected by the OCC will receive extensive training to ensure that the
agency’s current high standards of customer assistance continue.
“The contract will also
give the Customer Assistance Group the ability to quickly expand telephone
operating hours in the event of an emergency, such as Hurricane Katrina,” Mr.
Golden added.
The Customer Assistance
Group plans to begin expanding telephone hours of operation after vendor
selection and training is completed.
Consumers will continue
to be able to select from a number of options to contact a Customer Assistance
Specialist. These include:
PHONE: 1-800-613-6743
FAX: 713-336-4301
EMAIL: Customer.Assistance@occ.treas.gov
MAIL: Customer
Assistance Group
1301 McKinney Street
Suite 3450
Houston, TX 77010
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The Office of the
Comptroller of the Currency was created by Congress to charter national banks,
to oversee a nationwide system of banking institutions, and to assure that
national banks are safe and sound, competitive and profitable, and capable of
serving in the best possible manner the banking needs of their customers.