Consumer credit cases soar at FOS

The Financial Ombudsman Service’s Annual Review provides a useful yardstick of emerging issues in the industry – such as an 89 per cent surge in consumer credit-related complaints over the past year. Other themes include claims about banking IT failures, treatment of fraud victims and a focus on the detriment suffered by loyal insurance customers. Adam Samuel analyses the review.

Adam SamuelBA LLM DipPFS MCISI FCIArb Certs CII (MP&ER) Barrister and Attorney may be contacted atadamsamuel@aol.com.For links to where you can buy the second edition of ‘Consumer Financial Services Complaints and Compensation’, see www.adamsamuel.com/book.

The single defining feature of all ombudsman schemes is their Annual Review. The Financial Ombudsman Service is by far the largest of all these schemes in the United Kingdom and possibly in the world. The May 2019 publication of its Annual Review is a crucial moment in identifying the trends in future complaint-handling in the United Kingdom and perhaps elsewhere.