Regulators and ombudsman propose new protection committee
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The Financial Services Authority, the Office of Fair Trading and the Financial Ombudsman Service have proposed the creation of a new consumer protection committee.
The committee would be tasked with identifying any risks which could become widespread as well as ways of dealing with them, whether it be through regulatory action or consumer complaints.
Specialists from the three bodies would come together to spot emerging risks in the hope of dealing with the threats quickly. The FSA says the focus on emerging risk would complement its existing supervision regime.
FSA director of conduct policy Sheila Nicoll says: “Complaints handling is a priority area within the FSA’s intensive supervision agenda. The co-ordination committee is a clear indication of the intention, and will, of the authorities to work even more closely together to improve the experience of consumers, and to avoid problems happening in the first place.”
Interim chief ombudsman David Thomas says: “The ombudsman service is committed to preventing complaints, as well as resolving them. It’s key for regulators and the ombudsman service to continue working closely together to identify potential problems as soon as they emerge, to ensure that consumers are treated fairly and can have confidence in financial services.”
OFT director of consumer credit Ray Watson says: “”Identifying and dealing with problems at an early stage is important for ensuring consumers do not suffer unnecessary harm from financial products. We believe that the proposals for a new co-ordination committee and the focus on risk will improve our ability to deal with problems before they become widespread.”
“It presumably is no co-incidence that FSA’s proposed new consumer protection committee has such strong echoes of the Tories’ plans under its own Consumer Protection Agency”, says Ash Saluja of law firm CMS Cameron McKenna.
“Financial product design is now clearly fair game for the regulator. Although it is still unclear how intrusive the regulator will really be, we are still a long way from product pre-authorisation. But can we be sure that the judgement of the regulator is better than that of product providers”?
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Readers' comments (15)
Evan Owen | 11 Mar 2010 2:51 pm
“The ombudsman service is committed to preventing complaints". Is it?
Walter Merricks tried to generate complaints many times, the most blatant was with regard to CIC.
Anyway, do any of you have any confidence in this virtuous triangle's ability to catch a pig in a poke? No, far easier for them to make it all up.
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John Steed | 11 Mar 2010 3:09 pm
I think it is a brilliant scheme. As it is going to be so stressfull for them dreaming up more ways to punish our industry, I think they should hold their first meeting on a cruise liner in the Carribean.
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Anonymous | 11 Mar 2010 3:14 pm
It will be interesting to see who selects this 'committee' and where will they be selected from? I do wonder if it will be jobs for the boys once again!
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Peter | 11 Mar 2010 3:16 pm
Changing the title for what they do will do no good,the things that need changing are:
1.The personnel
2.The attitudes of the personnel
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Barry Johnson | 11 Mar 2010 3:20 pm
More jobs for more boys and quess who will be paying for it all.It looks like just another job creation scheme paid for by small IFA firms
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Alan Lakey | 11 Mar 2010 3:39 pm
I had to check that it wasn't April 1st - "FOS committed to preventing complaints"!
My experience, which I am certain mirrors that of other advisers, is that the FOS actually seeks to generate complaints and by the very nature of its inquisitorial focus it finds fault in areas where that has not even ben a complaint.
Merricks invited me to South Quay to see how wonderful the operation worked. Revealingly, he kept me well away from the adjudicators.
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Anonymous | 11 Mar 2010 3:41 pm
Quango Quango quango,quango....another useless organisation full of people who have never advised a client in their lives and have no idea what the job of Joe IFA Ltd involves.Consumers are now the most overprotected species in this country and seem to have absolutely no responsibility whatsoever for their own financial well being.I am not an IFA and will never be one because of this type of thing,its not worth it.This is all leading to European style "advice", a few IFA's to deal with very high end clients and the banks selling products for inflated commission and charges to as many people as they can.Farcica!!!
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Anonymous | 11 Mar 2010 3:55 pm
Send in the clowns.
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Anonymous | 11 Mar 2010 4:11 pm
I thought they already had...
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Michael Keech | 11 Mar 2010 4:11 pm
Until such time as we organise ourselves into a unified group that speaks with one voice and can withold fees, unfairly assessed compensation and taxes we are p...ing in the wind.
The small IFA needs to collectively act and pressure their respective networks to act on their behalf.
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