Ombudsman receiving fewer complaints, but upholding a higher percentage

Brendan Burgess

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From the Annual Review released today

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  • FSO 2015 Annual Review.pdf
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People are making fewer complaints to the FSO.

Is this because, people are less likely to make complaints when things are improving or because the financial institutions are dealing with the complaints early so that the customers don't need to go to the FSO?
 
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"
1,731 complaints were closed in 2015 due to no further contact from the Complainant. In the case of
almost 1,500 of these, the complainants had either not yet complained to their financial service
provider or had not provided sufficient information to the FSO to enable the case to be progressed
and did not respond when further information was sought by the FSO. This is an area of particular
concern that is being addressed through new processes for dealing with complaints, better
communication with complainants and potential complainants, and better data collection and
reporting.
We also propose to work with consumer representative and advocacy bodies to create a greater
awareness of the role of the office generally and a better understanding of our processes."
 
Most of the banking complaints were mortgage issues

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1203 for mortgages and 1,182 for all other issues combined.

This is not surprising due to the impact of a mortgage claim and the publicity surrounding tracker issues.
 
Can only speak for one financial institution listed. They settle majority of cases with a typical 100-250 euro offer to complainant after matter referred to FSO. They are committed to reducing complainants advancing to formal investigation. Pity they don't try to actually assist customers before going to FSO. Are such cases listed on the data provided in stats
 
They settle majority of cases with a typical 100-250 euro offer to complainant after matter referred to FSO.
Are such cases listed on the data provided in stats

They can only settle if the complainant agrees.

Following the complaints procedure with a provider and then continuing on to the FSO requires determination, patience and a bit of work, I would be surprised if many complainants at that stage would accepted an offer of €250, my guess is most would see it through to adjudication rather than accept such a token gesture.

I believe many are made reasonable offers at that stage, and accept.

3.2 Settled Complaints A total of 822 complaints (17% of the total closed) were settled by agreement between the complainant and the financial service provider as they progressed through the office. In the case of just over 300 complainants, financial service providers changed their position and reached a resolution with complainants after this office issued a summary of the complaint to the provider seeking responses to specific questions.

Page 9 here; [broken link removed]

The case I was involved in, the provider was adamant that they would not pay and sent detailed letters, including their final response, explaining why they could not pay.

A complaint went to the FSO, who accepted and asked the provider a number of specific questions, that was as far as it went, the provider did an immediate u turn and offered to settle for the full €30K+, if we withdraw our complaint.
 
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