The Financial Ombudsman Service has today launched a consultation on proposed amendments to the way it reports business-specific complaints data. 

It is one of the measures FOS said it is taking to get answers to customers faster.  

The consultation sets out proposals designed to incentivise firms to settle complaints proactively where the Ombudsman is yet to issue an opinion.

The FOS hopes to achieve that by making a longer-term change to how it publishes business-specific complaints data.  

It follows on from an initiative it launched in November 2021, which led to around 100 businesses making 7,000 offers to resolve complaints more quickly.

The Ombudsman has been considering the results and feedback from that initiative to see if it can take forward something similar on a more permanent basis. 

The 2021 initiative introduced a temporary amendment to the way the FOS reported half-yearly business-specific complaints data.

In addition to the “change” and “no change” in outcome, it introduced a third outcome to record complaints that were “proactively settled” by businesses.

It said in 2021 it considered a firm to have “proactively settled” a complaint if:

• It made an offer to settle a complaint which had become a chargeable case before 31 October 2021 and before it had issued our initial opinion on the complaint;
• It considered the offer was a fair way to resolve the complaint, and;
• The complainant accepted the offer, or if they didn’t, that the Ombudsman agreed that the offer was a fair way to resolve the complaint when investigating and deciding it.

An earlier consultation suggested such an amendment would act positively as an incentive for businesses to settle complaints pragmatically at an earlier stage, without the need for a full investigation by an investigator or ombudsman.

The FOS said: “Since then, some stakeholders have told us that some form of continuation of the initiative should be considered and even implemented on a permanent basis, as it provides an incentive to settle complaints more quickly without the perceived negative connotations of an increased uphold rate.

“We are therefore proposing a longer-term implementation of such an amendment, and we welcome our stakeholders’ views.”

The FOS has published complaints data about individual financial businesses and products since 2009.

It said it publishes the data as it increases transparency, helps to inform consumer choice, and provides an incentive to businesses to improve their complaint handling.

The consultation is open for two weeks and closes at 5pm on Monday 20 March 2023. 

The consultation document is available here.

It has asked stakeholders’ to send their thoughts on the proposals.

Please send responses, to arrive by 5pm on Monday 20 March 2023, to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The FOS said it will consider stakeholders’ responses and publish its decision and any associated plans by 3 April 2023.