Financial services complaints body wins years-long court battle against chief ombudsman
FSCL – an independent statutory adjudicator of complaints between consumers and 7,000 market participants such as financial advisers, insurers, non-bank lenders and finance companies, mortgage brokers, insurance brokers, trustees and fund managers – had filed for judicial review of a decision by the chief ombudsman to refuse its request to use the term in its name, in a similar fashion to the Banking Ombudsman Scheme and the Insurance and Savings Ombudsman Scheme.
Since 1991 it has been illegal for anyone to call themselves an ombudsman without the chief ombudsman’s permission.
The saga began in 2015 when FSCL applied to then Chief Ombudsman Dame Beverley Wakem, but was knocked back. It tried again the following year with a new chief ombudsman, Peter Boshier, in the chair but got the same result.
Court action followed; the Court of Appeal directing Boshier to reconsider. He did – and again refused the application. Back in the High Court again, a judge set aside the chief ombudsman’s decision on grounds it was pre-determined and ruled the matter was to be reconsidered by a temporary ombudsman appointed specifically for that purpose.
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