FICS puts ruling reviews on hold

The Financial Industry Complaints Service (FICS) has put off making a formal decision on whether its rulings can be internally reviewed until early next year.

Chief executive Alyson Maynard told Money Management the decision to delay any formal rule changes was made at the financial complaints service’s national conference in Melbourne, where members and the FICS board decided more time was needed to discuss the issue.

“The sort of things discussed at the conference were that, first of all, having a level of review can stretch out the decision-making process, and make it more expensive for members,” Maynard said.

“The complaints scheme is supposed to be a low cost and efficient alternative to going to court, and once you start replicating the court process, you lose those benefits.”

Maynard, however, said members had at least agreed that the panel, on “some occasions”, would need to go back and look at a determination “when there’s an obvious mistake”.

Other potentially more expensive and time consuming options being considered by FICS include the issuing of draft determinations that can be internally appealed by both the consumer and members of the financial services industry.

Maynard also said she expected the number of complaints that are resolved earlier — at the conciliation stage — to increase next year.

“More members will be trying the conciliation process ... there are many different options for settlement, and it is not always exercises in ‘get out your cheque book’.”

Maynard said possible changes to FICS rules to increase the current $100,000 compensation payment threshold for complainants who received bad financial advice will not be made until next year.