I read with interest the article by Jeff Prestridge (FA, 30 Oct) that touched on the Financial Services Compensation Scheme’s handling of Arch Cru claims and suggested a lack of customer focus. We take our commitments to compensating consumers and to customer care very seriously.
We protect many thousands of people every year. So we were disappointed to read about the problems some people told Mr Prestridge they have experienced. We will gladly look into these cases for Mr Prestridge.
In the meantime, it is helpful to understand the total picture of the volume of claims we have handled. That can provide a fuller picture than a short opinion piece provides for. It also shows that, far from being bureaucratic, inefficient and incompetent, FSCS has come to the aid of thousands of Arch Cru customers.
FSCS has received more than 3,100 claims against Arch Cru, which was, as your readers know, a very complicated investment failure.
We have to date decided more than 93 per cent of claims, and paid compensation for more than 2,600 claims (84 per cent of all Arch Cru claims). FSCS received 22 complaints about our handling of the cases; that amounts to less than 1 per cent of Arch Cru claims. We aim to reduce the number of complaints we receive, and are looking into each case individually. All the same, this number is hardly sufficient to warrant the sweeping assertion in the article about FSCS.
Mark Neale
Chief executive, Financial Services Compensation Scheme
