Our goals: your satisfaction
Preface
One aspect of our efforts to ensure the quality of our business activities is the way we manage complaints. Aareal Bank AG operates a complaints management system with the purpose of systematically recording and evaluating all complaints that are received. In connection with our complaints management system, we have set out below the avenues that are available to present and potential clients (jointly referred to below as "clients") for contacting us, the procedures that we use for responding to client concerns, the related data management and the evaluations that we perform. We want to offer our clients a simple and barrier-free platform for expressing any grievances they may have. You do not need any special knowledge to tell us what is on your mind.
Our complaints-handling process
At Aareal Bank, we want you to be satisfied with our services on a lasting basis. If you do have any cause for dissatisfaction, we want to sit down with you to find ways of restoring your satisfaction. One aspect of this is understanding your concern, eliminating errors that have caused it and finding a mutually acceptable solution.
Our general complaints management will handle concerns relating to our bank or housing industry business. If your inquiry concerns our investment services, our Compliance division will be pleased to help you.
A complaint can be submitted free of charge.
How to reach us
You can submit your complaint in person, by telephone on +49 611 348 0, via our website Online form, by e-mail to Beschwerdemanagement(at)aareal-bank.com or by ordinary mail to
Aareal Bank AG
- Complaints Management -
Paulinenstraße 15,
65189 Wiesbaden
If you are dissatisfied with an investment service provided by Aareal Bank AG, you can contact us in the same way. In this case, however, your complaint will be handled by our WpHG Compliance Officer.
We require the following information from you
Please provide us with the following information so that we are able to respond to your complaint as quickly and as effectively as possible.
- Date on which the matter giving rise to the complaint arose,
- Account, product and service that is the subject of your complaint,
- Description of your grievance and how it affects you as our client,
- Indication whether you will be contacting Complaints Management or Compliance.
If you do not have all this information, please describe your grievance in as much detail as possible even when you use the contact form.
Processing time
We will respond to your complaint with minimum delay - mostly within 15 days. If we are unable to solve your problem directly, we will confirm receipt of your complaint and outline the principles of our complaints-handling procedure to you. At the same time, we will let you know when you can expect to hear from us.
What we can do for you
We treat each complaint individually and examine the matter which you describe. We perform the necessary investigation and internal inquiries. If we require a little more time to answer your complaint, we will send you interim notification stating when you can expect to receive our reply.
Our reply
You will receive our reply - where applicable by e-mail - stating the details and results of our inquiries. We will also let you know if we are able to remedy your complaint. If by way of exception we are unable to do this, we will explain in detail the reasons for this.
Arbitration / ombudsman
If in spite of our efforts you are not satisfied with our answer, the following avenues of recourse are available to you under German law.
Aareal Bank participates in the dispute resolution procedure of the German ombudsman for private banks (www.bankenombudsmann.de). Consumers may file a request with the ombudsman for private banks for resolution of a dispute with the Bank. If the dispute involves a contract for the provision of payment services (§ 675f of the German Civil Code (BGB)), a request for resolution before the ombudsman for private banks may also be filed by clients that are not consumers.
For additional details, please refer to the "Rules for the Resolution of Client Complaints in the German Banking Sector," which will be made available upon request and can also be inspected on the Internet at www.bankenverband.de. Complaints must be made in writing (e.g. letter, telefax or e-mail) and addressed to the Customer Complaint Department of Bundesverband deutscher Banken e.V., Postfach 040307, 10062 Berlin, Fax: (030) 1663-3169, E-Mail: ombudsmann(at)bdb.de. European dispute resolution platform The European Commission has established a European Online Dispute Resolution Platform (ODR platform) at http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr/. Consumers may use the ODR platform to resolve disputes arising from online contracts with a company domiciled in the EU without going to court.
Separate complaint procedure according to the German Act on Corporate Due Diligence Obligations in Supply Chains (LkSG)
Aareal Bank has set up a special complaints procedure for reporting human rights and environmental risks.
If you have specific evidence regarding the Bank or one of our suppliers, please find an instruction on the complaints procedure as well as information on the reporting channels here.
