Financial Ombudsman Service (Australia)
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| Predecessor |
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|---|---|
| Formation | 1 July 2008 |
| Type | Ombudsman |
| Headquarters | Melbourne, Victoria |
| Location |
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Membership
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Australian banks, insurers, credit providers, financial advisers and planners, debt collection agencies and other businesses that provide financial products and services |
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Chief Ombudsman
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Shane Tregillis |
| Affiliations | Australian Securities and Investment Commission |
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Staff
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293 FTE (2016) |
| Website | www |
The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) is a member-funded Australian ombudsman service that provides external dispute resolution for consumers who are unable to resolve complaints with member financial services organisations.
As of 30 June 2016[update] the FOS had approximately 5,500 licensed member organisations that included banks, insurers, credit providers, financial advisers and planners, debt collection agencies and other businesses that provide financial products and services; together with an additional 8,000 authorised credit representatives. The Service is governed by its term of reference which allow for it to hear matters within six years of the first knowledge of a financial loss and, since January 2015, for the Service to award remedies capped at A$309,000. In 2015-6, the FOS received 34,095 disputes and closed 32,871 disputes; a seven per cent increase on the number of disputes received during the previous year and a five per cent decrease on the number of disputes closed.
The FOS is led by the Chief Ombudsman, presently Shane Tregillis. He is supported by lead ombudsmen for banking and finance, general insurance, and investment and advice; with ten other ombudsmen supporting various functional areas and disputes.
The FOS was established on 1 July 2008 following the merger of the Financial Industry Complaints Service (FICS) with the Banking and Financial Services Ombudsman (BFSO) and Insurance Ombudsman Service (IOS); all of which were industry self-regulatory bodies. Two additional schemes chose to merge with the FOS later in 2009, the Credit Union Dispute Resolution Centre and the Insurance Brokers Disputes Limited.
The principles underpinning FOS’s operations and processes are to resolve disputes between consumers and financial services providers in accordance with its Terms of Reference.
Banks and financial services providers must be licensed to provide their services to consumers. It is a condition of such a licence that the bank or financial services provider be a member of an External Dispute Resolution (EDR) scheme that is approved by ASIC. FOS and the Credit and Investments Ombudsman (CIO) are the two schemes approved by ASIC under the Corporations Act and the National Consumer Credit Protection Act
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