FOS to deliver on first stage of resolution changes

The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has claimed it would deliver on the first stage of changes to streamline and accelerate its dispute resolution process by June of this year with rolling improvements to be implemented until July 2015. 

Earlier this year FOS announced a series of changes, including the use of specialist expertise and reduced touch points and stages in the dispute resolution process, after an independent review found the resolution model required an overhaul. 

In its most recent quarterly newsletter FOS stated it would implement changes applicable to credit, deposit taking and payment system disputes and will assess the results to manage dispute backlogs in other areas. 

FOS stated it would be pushing ahead with a fast-track process for simple and low value disputes and changes its two-step dispute lodgement process to a one-step process. 

This new process would allow financial services providers to resolve disputes through their own internal dispute resolution systems before proceeding to FOS and allow it to provide guidance on the merits of a dispute. 

FOS said it would also issue written decisions that better communicated the outcomes of disputes to complainants and financial services providers. 

FOS stated it had also received more than 8000 disputes in the period from January to March of this year, which was a six per cent increase from the same quarter last year. 

Of these disputes nearly 900 were dealt with at the first stage of the dispute resolution process by the financial services provider with another 5550 resolved at the second stage of the process via an agreement between the financial services provider and the complainant. 

Investments and life insurance accounted for 4.4 per cent of disputes, respectively, in the January to March period with consumer credit (49.1 per cent), general insurance (26.1 per cent) and deposit taking (7.4 per cent) accounting for more than 80 per cent of disputes.