Millions of customers promised quicker justice against banks and insurers in major shake-up – will it help you?

CUSTOMERS will find it easier to make a complaint against their bank or insurer and get a resolution faster under major new reforms. The Financial Ombudsman Service is a free resolution process that settles disputes between consumers and businesses when they can’t reach an agreement. Under the plans complaints will go through a new registration stage, which will confirm that a case is within the Ombudsman’s scope and is ready to be investigated before it looks into it. The reform is intended to speed up the process and make sure resources are focused on cases that are more appropriate for the service. Sign up for the Money newsletter Thank you! The change will be rolled out next year after a consultation on case fees later this year. The Ombudsman will also be able to dismiss complaints that it can’t resolve or are already being investigated in other ways. This includes complaints that may be better suited to court, law enforcement or another dispute resolution process or if there is no financial loss, material distress or inconvenience. The changes are set to come into force on October 1, 2026. James Dipple-Johnstone, chief ombudsman at the Financial Ombudsman Service, said: “We are driving forward reforms to bring consistency and predictability to the redress system – helping to underpin confidence in financial services, ensuring major or emerging issues are escalated earlier, and supporting firms with better insight to help them address and resolve customer issues more effectively and proactively.” The measures are part of a wider series of steps the Financial Ombudsman Service had taken to modernise its service. Most read in Money Among them is an updated online complaint form to make it easier for customers to submit their issues. Meanwhile, legislative changes to the way the redress scheme and Financial Ombudsman Service operate are progressing through Parliament as part of the Financial Services and Markets Bill. The changes are designed to support confidence in financial services, so customers get quicker compensation when things go wrong and firms have more certainty to invest, grow and compete. But experts have suggested that the Financial Services and Markets Bill is ill-conceived and threatens the Ombudsman’s independence. Rocio Concha, Which? director of policy and advocacy, said: “Today’s changes show that those sweeping legislative reforms are not needed and should be dropped, as they risk undermining protections for individual consumers when they are in a dispute with some of the most powerful businesses in the country.” Comment now