At the FCA’s “Consumer Duty: One year on” webinar (recording here), Abby Thomas, the FOS Chief Executive and Chief Ombudsman, delivered a speech reflecting on the first year of Consumer Duty. The speech covered the role of FOS, the impact the Consumer Duty has had on financial services, how FOS can benefit financial services businesses going forwards under the Consumer Duty.
The FOS vision is to ensure that every customer – whether they are a complainant, or a business customer – receives either a better outcome, or is better informed, as a result of using FOS.
- Thomas stressed that the purpose of FOS remains, as it always has been, to resolve individual complaints based on what FOS thinks is fair and reasonable in all the circumstances of the case.
- Over the last two years, FOS has restructured its teams so that every member of its Casework team is now aligned to an industry sector, or is supporting the implementation of cross-cutting policy initiatives – including the Consumer Duty.
- Quality is up, and average resolution times have more than halved.
- FOS remains committed to sharing its “bird’s eye view” insight of the financial services sector – so what works and, according to customers, what doesn’t – for the benefit of all financial services firms.
The speech explored how FOS engages with firms, the impact that Consumer Duty has had on firms, and how FOS believes the Duty can help firms, with some examples of how firms could have done better in certain circumstances.