This follows a consultation regarding its complaints process where it found that within a five-month temporary initiative held in 2021 to reduce its backlog, 100 financial firms made 7,000 offers to customers to settle complaints.
The FOS said: “This had a substantial impact on our queue, eased operational pressures at businesses, and helped complainants get fair answers quicker – including over 2,000 victims of scams who were reimbursed the money they lost.”
The consultation after this initiative revealed that firms thought this change should be permanent.
For the financial year 2023/2024, the FOS will introduce the proactively settled category for firms that make an offer to settle a complaint within 14 days. The body will review the offer to make sure it is “fair and reasonable” before sharing it with the complainant. Otherwise, the complaint will be investigated under normal procedures.
If the offer is accepted, the complaint will be closed and categorised as proactively settled, if it is not then the FOS will investigate as normal.
If the complaint is reviewed and the firm’s offer to settle is considered to be fair and reasonable and forms part of the resolution, the case will be categorised as proactively settled.
This change will apply to cases from 1 April 2023 until 31 March 2024.
