Current account complaints dominate ombudsman's work
COMPLAINTS about banking, and particularly current accounts, dominated the case statistics at the Channel Islands Financial Ombudsman for the second quarter of 2017.
The office also saw complaints drop significantly during the quarter at 121. It managed to close almost 200 complaints during the three months, which meant the legacy workload fell for the first time.
'Compared with previous quarters, two notable differences this quarter are the re-emergence of banking as the predominant sector giving rise to complaints, and the decrease in the proportion of complaints rejected as being outside the scope of Cifo's mandate,' said chief ombudsman Douglas Melville.
'The larger number and relative proportion of case files closed through an ombudsman determination is also a notable difference from past quarters and is largely due to a multiple complaint situation involving one financial services provider.
'The quarter-over-quarter changes remind us that the volume and nature of financial sector complaints are fluid, and that quarterly statistics are merely a snapshot of Cifo's evolving experience.'
Banking cases were responsible for more than half the complaints received, with current accounts to number one issue.
The ombudsman determined 78 cases, of which just four went against the complainant.
In the vast majority of cases the compensation recommended by the ombudsman was higher than had been offered by the financial services provider.
Only once before have the quarterly statistics for Cifo been so low, and that was in Q2 2016, where 118 complaints were made.
