Impartiality
The Financial Ombudsman Service publishes the proportion of complaints it upholds in favour of consumers ranging (in 20011/2012) between 2% and 99%, depending on the financial product and business concerned. Across all complaints in 2011/2012 the ombudsman found 64% in favour of consumers.
The ombudsman was set up by parliament to be an impartial and independent body, though its decisions can be criticised by the side that loses.
Independent commentators acknowledge that the ombudsman service is a valuable free service for consumers - although those who feel they have "lost" a complaint might understandably feel let down and want to question the ombudsman's impartiality. Some consumers have questioned the amount of redress awarded by the ombudsman while many businesses expect the ombudsman to apply the compensation cap rigidly and lobbied against the increase (in January 2012) from £100,000 to £150,000 in the maximum compensation the ombudsman can tell a business to pay.
Various websites have been set up to complain about the Financial Ombudsman's partiality - usually by people who disagree with particular ombudsman decisions.
Read more about this topic: Financial Ombudsman Service
Famous quotes containing the word impartiality:
“Man is always partial and is quite right to be. Even impartiality is partial.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)
“Our impartiality is kept for abstract merit and demerit, which none of us ever saw.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“What people call impartiality may simply mean indifference, and what people call partiality may simply mean mental activity.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)