Financial Ombudsman Service facing reform as new consultation launched – here's what we know so far

MSE_Molly_G

The free and independent Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) – which settles disputes between UK-regulated financial companies and consumers – could be reformed in future, the Government has announced. But it's still very early days – for now, there are NO changes to how the Ombudsman works and you can still escalate your complaint to the service as usual.

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Financial Ombudsman Service facing reform as new consultation launched – here's what we know so far

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voluted

Sadly the only reform that is required, consumers paying the fee if their complaint is not upheld, isn't in there.

I worked in that industry for several years. The number of spurious claims with an explicit or implicit "otherwise I'll take you to the FOS and it'll cost you £x" is insane.

Make them have some skin in the game.

PHK

Well the good news is that claims management companies and solicitors (the ones that prey on people who don’t know they don’t need one to approach the FOS) will have to pay £250 if they take a case to the FOS. 

You only have to look at the FOS website and FCA complaint statistics to see that some types of complaint only 25% or less are upheld. 

It’s a massive waste of money and time that only makes financial products more expensive for everyone. 

The answer to it is that the FOS need to get much better at advising people who don’t have a good case to not go ahead. 

The other alternative is a loser pays system , so only those people who are really sure go to the FOS. 

born_again

I would rather FCA etc take a stance & regulate on the companies that prey on people talking them into claims. Such as current farce
Which if proper rules been in place would never have happened.

PHK

I agree. The current rules don’t seem to work well at all. These professional representatives get people’s hopes up and when the few do get their complaint upheld take a portion of the award. 

This especially affects the not well off who may have lost a couple of thousand in a scam. Which is a lot to them. The FOS award 50% and then the professional representative takes a chunk.