Lord Hunt’s proposals will benefit companies with a strong service record
Having spent six months looking into the way the Financial Services Ombudsman operates, and its relationship with businesses and consumers, Lord Hunt has concluded that consumers needs more clout. He has proposed that, when the ombudsman upholds a public complaint against a company, it puts it into a league table, which would be made available to the public and would clearly have grave implications for any company that incurred a large number of complaints.
As law firm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain has pointed out, the threat of giving a booby prize to the worst offenders seems unfair when, in a league table form, those offenders may be only slightly worse than their counterparts. But if this level of detail were made available, then what is there to be scared of?
The ombudsman is an impartial judge and will only uphold those complaints it considers to be well founded. Any company which is proud of its service and believes its good standards are delivered consistently has nothing to lose from Lord Hunt’s proposal. In fact, by helping to empower consumers and publicly demonstrating their confidence in their own business, they may have something to gain.
