FOS

Lobbying group Adviser Alliance is confident it will secure a judicial review into the FSA's decision to remove a complaints long-stop in financial services - and has not ruled out an approach to AIFA.

All advisers who sold low and medium risk investors Keydata products backed by life settlements face the threat of crippling compensation payouts, after a landmark early decision by the FOS.

The FSA has appointed three more non-executive directors to the strategic board of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), as it prepares for an avalanche of extra claims over Payment Protection Insurance and a series of investment company failures.

Firms' refusal to pay their case fees to the FOS until the outcome of a judicial review into PPI mis-selling could exhaust the Ombudsman's reserves in six weeks and force it to raise its industry levy by as much as 25%.

The financial Ombudsman (FOS) is calling for a budget increase of up to £15m in 2011/12 to deal with a shift towards harder-fought cases, but says it will freeze case fees and its general annual levy for the second year running.

MP Mark Garnier has pledged to "pick up the baton and run with it" on the reintroduction of a 15 year long-stop for advisers, starting with lobbying the influential Treasury Select Committee (TSC) on which he sits.

The Financial Ombudsman (FOS) is asking for industry opinion on whether to make its decision-making process and final rulings public.

Fraudulent insurance claims should allow the immediate cancellation of a policy, according to industrywide representations.

The Financial Ombudsman Service is an opaque consumer champion which ignores the law when reaching its verdicts. Not so, according to the FOS.

Law Commission proposals to hold insurers liable for damages after delays or refusing to pay a valid claim have been welcomed.