The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has confirmed a package of reforms designed to modernise how complaints are handled. The reforms focus on: Introducing a new registration stage before investigation. Clarifying and expanding dismissal powers. Updating the “fair and reasonable” test used in complaint decisions. 1. New Registration Stage The Financial
Many organisations still view complaint management primarily as a regulatory requirement. A necessary control designed to reduce risk, satisfy regulators and resolve issues once something has gone wrong. That perspective is becoming increasingly outdated. Having worked with complaint operations across multiple sectors, one thing has become clear: the organisations extracting
Complaints are often treated as an operational burden. They arrive late in a customer journey, demand time and resource, and carry regulatory and reputational risk. So organisations do what they are designed to do: they process them efficiently, bring them to closure, and move on. But in doing so, most
Complaints are still widely viewed as an unavoidable cost of doing business. They sit in operational teams, measured by backlog, handling time and regulatory compliance. Success is often defined as closing cases rather than changing outcomes. We see that this mindset is increasingly out of step with reality. Every complaint
Regulatory update – FCA motor finance redress scheme consultation – 8th October 2025 Background The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has proposed a redress scheme to address widespread concerns about undisclosed commission arrangements in motor finance agreements. This follows a landmark Supreme Court ruling in August 2025, which clarified that certain
The FCA has confirmed that, subject to the outcome of the Supreme Court’s ruling expected in July 2025, it is likely to consult on an industry-wide redress scheme for customers affected by discretionary commission arrangements (DCAs). The scheme would be firm-led and designed to deliver fair, consistent, and efficient outcomes
