The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) wants to hear your views on how it should fund its future operations, in anticipation of a decline in the current levels of PPI complaints.
In light of the FCA’s PPI complaints deadline of 29 August 2019, FOS expects to be a much smaller organisation handling fewer but more complex complaints.
To fund its future operations, FOS is proposing the following:
- Rebalance the proportion of income it gets from its levy compared with case fees so that it achieves a 50/50 split. The current arrangement is an 85/15 split between case fees and levy.
- Reducing the number of “free” cases to 10 per firm (currently 25), and to 50 for each group within its group account fee arrangement (currently 125). Its proposals mean 82% of firms who have complaints referred to it won’t pay case fees as opposed to the current arrangement of 90% of firms.
- Maintaining reserves of a minimum of six months’ operating income – current policy is three months’ operating income.
With the number of “free” cases reducing, more businesses may have to pay when FOS investigates complaints against them. To enable the BVRLA to provide an industry response, please contact Senior Policy Advisor Jinmi Macaulay with your views by Friday, 19 July.
The consultation closes on 13 August 2019.
