The Financial Conduct Authority has unveiled a series of proposals designed to improve customer complaint handling.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulator has opened a consultation into improving complaints handling services, such as stopping financial services firms from using premium-rate phone lines and quicker referrals to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
The FCA wants to improve transparency by requiring firms to report all complaints to them, not just ones where final response letters are issued, as is the case currently. Companies will also have to examine and report the causes and categories of complaints, which will be published with details about the size of the business to provide greater context and allow for clearer comparison of performance.
Complain without a letter
As it stands, complaints that are handled by the end of the next business day don’t require a letter to be sent to the customer. Even in these cases, you must wait eight weeks before taking your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
The FCA is proposing to extend the period that customers can complain without a formal letter. Firms will be allowed up to three business days to deal with less complex complaints, helping customers to resolve matters faster.
These same complainants will also be able to go to the Financial Ombudsman Service as soon as they’ve had a response from the firm. Said firms will also have to mention that you have the option of contacting the ombudsman if you’re not satisfied with their response.
Alternative Dispute Resolution Directive
There is also a consultation into amending the complaints handling rules to take account of an EU directive called the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) directive.
The FCA is proposing to keep current time limits for referring complaints to the ombudsman service, which are "six years from the date of the event, or (if later) three years from the date on which the consumer knew, or could reasonably have known/ought reasonably to have become aware, they had cause to complain".
Firms would have to voluntarily consent to complaints made outside these time limits being investigated by the ombudsman. And they could not then backtrack on that consent.
The FCA is also continuing to consider the case for a so-called ‘long stop’ on complaints to the ombudsman, proposing a potential time limit of 15 years.
In its last review of complaint handling, the FCA concluded that while some improvements have been made, there is still a long way to go. It highlighted that firms don’t always consider the impact on customers when designing and implementing processes and procedures, which it hopes these proposals will address.
Comments on the proposals are now open until 15th March next year.
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