Barclays to fast-track the backlog of Aviva income complaints
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Barclays has agreed to fast-track the backlog of complaints currently with the Financial Omb-udsman Service over its sale of the Aviva global balanced inc-ome fund and has promised to accept all adjudications.
In April 2009, Money Marketing first revealed that Barclays advised cautious clients approaching or in retirement to transfer their long-term savings into the single specialist fund.
Its value plunged by almost 50 per cent in the 12 months to March 2009 and the bank admitted it erroneously categorised the fund as balanced rather than adventurous between July and November 2007.
Last week, Barclays issued an apology after scores of investors marched on Parliament to rally support from MPs.
A spokesman says: “We are fully aware of the concerns raised by some of our customers who have invested in the Aviva global income funds and we are sorry for the stress this has caused. We also regret that this has been exacerbated by the length of time taken to resolve some of their complaints.
“We expect the majority of complaints at FOS to be resolved within the next few weeks. We want to reassure them that we will offer redress where appropriate, according to the guidance provided by FOS.”
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Readers' comments (1)
Julian Stevens | 29 Jul 2010 11:12 am
I'd still like to know just what "special training" given to FOS adjudicators, why any such training was deemed necessary and at whose behest. If the training was for the adjudicators to be more as opposed to less rigorous in their assessments, then fair enough, but so far no one seems willing to publish any details.
Were the culprit an IFA firm, we can be pretty certain that the "special training" would constitute an instruction to the adjudicators to don their hardest steel-toecapped hobnail boots and give no quarter.
And what, if any, has been the FSA's input? We read of dissatisfied complainants having had to seek assistance from their MP's and protesting outside parliament, but nothing about any pressure being brought to bear from Canary Wharf, least of all any of the usual proclamations from Margaret Cole about how the FSA has "acted swiftly and decisively" and how this sort of wanton disregard for TCF "is unacceptable and won't be tolerated", etc, etc.
None of that on this case, though. Odd, isn't it?
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