RegulationAug 19 2016

Ombudsmen back adjudicators in 90% of cases

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Ombudsmen back adjudicators in 90% of cases

Ombudsmen are overwhelmingly likely to agree with their adjudicators, according to data released by the Financial Ombudsman Service.

A request under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that in 2014/15 and 2015/16, 8.8 per cent and 12.7 per cent of decisions respectively involved an ombudsman making a different decision to an adjudicator.

In those two years there were 74,869 occasions when an ombudsman made a final decision, reviewing an adjudicator’s provisional decision.

All but 7,975 of those cases saw the ombudsman back the original decision reached by the adjudicator.

This means that cumulatively over the two years, 90 per cent of adjudicator decisions were upheld by an ombudsman.

Most decisions that were changed by an ombudsman had previously been upheld by an adjudicator, but were then not upheld.

In 2014/15, of the decisions where there was a difference of opinion between Fos staff, 57 per cent of provisional rulings were changed in this way, while in 2015/16 this was the case with 61 per cent of changed decisions.

Over the two years, this means 59 per cent of changed decisions which had been upheld by an adjudicator went on to be dismissed by an ombudsman.

According to the Fos annual review for 2015/16, only 1 per cent of total complaints during that year were against financial advisers.

Of these, 40 per cent were upheld, compared with 56 per cent being upheld for banks and 49 per cent for consumer credit businesses.