Guernsey Press

'We are about compensating the consumer'

COMPENSATION, not fines, will be enforced if the new Channel Islands Financial Ombudsman finds merit in consumer complaints, he has said.

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But Douglas Melville said the main hope for his office, which is set to start work on 16 November, would be that issues are resolved internally by businesses in the first instance.

However, he added that the ombudsman was there to act as a mediator between two parties when complaints focused around grey areas.

'It creates an opportunity for financial consumers to have consumers to have complaints reviewed when they would otherwise have to resort to the courts, which is a relatively expensive option, particularly when the majority of financial complaints are modest in size,' he said.

'The advantage of the ombudsman model is that the service is very accessible, being free, it's an impartial service and if it's determined that there is a merit to a complaint, we will have the ability to compel a firm to pay up to £150,000.'

He added, however, that such action would always be about compensation.

'They won't be fines, fines are about punishment, which is for a regulator to do,' he said. 'What we are about is compensating consumers, putting them back to the position they otherwise would have been in if it wasn't for the inappropriate advice, for example.

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