The Financial Ombudsman Service’s (FOS) quick complaints settlement initiative has seen £22m in redress secured for consumers.

The FOS launched a temporary initiative asking firms to resolve complaints more quickly in November, ending at the end of March.

During this period, complaints that were proactively settled by firms before the FOS had issued its opinion did not count towards their uphold rate.

Since November 6,877 offers have been made to consumers.

Over £10m of redress was secured in “authorised scam complaints”, with over 2,000 claimants refunded the money they had lost.

The average offer to consumers made during the initiative was £3,200 per case.

Nausicaa Delfas, chief executive and chief ombudsman of the Financial Ombudsman Service, said: “We are delighted that many financial businesses have responded to our initiative and have helped customers get their complaints resolved more quickly.

“This was just one of a range of initiatives we put in place to address the large backlog of complaints received during Covid-19. The backlog is now a third of what it was at the beginning of last year.  We are now moving forward with our Action Plan to change and improve the Financial Ombudsman for the future.”

Firms in the top ten businesses who made offers as part of the initiative were Embark owner Lloyds Banking Group and Standard Life owner Phoenix Group.