Provided incorrect information - help, any ideas

squirrelpie

It seems to me that contacting one of the journalists previously mentioned has the greatest chance of reaching a better compromise. Official channels will most likely produce a disappointing result as would an MP.

Culzean

eskbanker said:

Culzean said:

I assumed the Ombudsman was within the regulatory framework but I've just discovered that he is not

It depends on what you mean by 'within the regulatory framework'?

The FCA delegates consumer complaints handling to the FOS, whose remit is clearly defined within the same legislation that governs the role of the FCA, and there is interaction between the bodies:

The FCA is the regulator of most financial services in the UK. It's responsible for regulating the conduct of businesses and setting rules for businesses to follow, including the rules on how financial businesses handle complaints.

We work closely with the FCA, although we’re independent in the way we investigate and decide cases. We work with the FCA in three areas:

1. Governance – as the industry regulator, the FCA publishes our official rules and appoints our chairman and board of non-executive directors.
2. Responding to regulation – by understanding any changes the FCA makes to regulations, we make sure we’re ready for any changes in the type and number of complaints we receive.
3. Information sharing – we share information with the FCA so that both organisations can work effectively. We also share any trends and common problems we see that could inform future regulation.

Our joint memorandum of understanding provides a framework for how we work together.

Wider Implications Framework

The Wider Implications Framework is a way that members of the regulatory family work with each other, and other parties as appropriate, on issues that could have a wider impact across the financial services industry.

You can find out about the role of the Wider Implications Framework in guiding cooperation between members of the regulatory family on the FCA’s websitehttps://www.fca.org.uk/about/wider-implications-framework.

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/who-we-are/work-other-organisations

Culzean said:

The extent of compensation that the Ombudsman awards is interesting, I thought I read that they had made awards in the tens, even hundreds of thousands.     

There's a distinction between 'compensation' and actually correcting financial errors, the larger sums will be the latter.

Thank you for clarifying.

I know it's not you I need to convince but I'd have thought that my suffering a quantifiable financial loss as a direct result of an instruction given to me by a major financial institution would fall under the heading of correcting a financial error. Compensation might be something that recognises the endless hours of work that I will need to undertake and the impact on my physical and mental well being. Regardless I owe it to myself to give it everything i've got

eskbanker

Culzean said:

Culzean said:

The extent of compensation that the Ombudsman awards is interesting, I thought I read that they had made awards in the tens, even hundreds of thousands.     

There's a distinction between 'compensation' and actually correcting financial errors, the larger sums will be the latter.

Thank you for clarifying.

I know it's not you I need to convince but I'd have thought that my suffering a quantifiable financial loss as a direct result of an instruction given to me by a major financial institution would fall under the heading of correcting a financial error. Compensation might be something that recognises the endless hours of work that I will need to undertake and the impact on my physical and mental well being. Regardless I owe it to myself to give it everything i've got

Yes, the FOS approach is explained as:

If a business has made a mistake or treated you unfairly and you’ve lost out as a result, we have the power to put things right. Usually, we’ll tell the business to put you back in the position you’d be in if they hadn’t got things wrong.

There are a number of things we can tell a business to do to put things right. These include:

• paying you money for financial loss
• putting things right in a way that doesn’t involve paying money
• paying you money to recognise the impact of what went wrong

We can also tell a business to pay interest on our awards, and in rare circumstances, pay costs.

Compensation for financial loss

Where you’ve lost out financially, we can tell the business to pay you money directly to put things right. That might mean awarding you a specific amount, or telling the business how to calculate the amount you should receive.

There is a limit to how much we can tell a business to pay. But we can recommend that they pay you more if we think it’s fair. If we think your compensation might be over this limit, we’ll get in touch about what that means for you.

Find out more about how we can award compensation for financial loss. 

Compensation for distress or inconvenience

A business’s mistake can affect you practically or emotionally, not just financially. For this reason, the rules we follow say that we can award fair compensation to recognise other types of impact, for example the distress, inconvenience or other practical problems caused by the dispute.

Find out more about when we award compensation for distress or inconvenience and other types of distress or inconvenience. 

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/expect/compensation

All of the decisions that are escalated to an actual ombudsman for a final decision (as opposed to simply adjudicated by more junior case handlers) are published, so you can read through ones that are similar to yours for indications of their approach, although the art is using appropriate search terms to identify them!

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decisions-case-studies/ombudsman-decisions

Moonwolf

This is a terrible story.  While I lean towards the journalist as suggested by others, the one thing I would add as a suggestion that no one else seems to have mentioned is check with relevant charities.  MacMillan for example have financial services for people worried about sorting their money out, I'm not sure of the scope but I suspect a call would al least help. https://www.macmillan.org.uk/forms/contact-us/financial-guidance.html