FOS commits to sharing learnings from industry complaints data

The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has committed to share findings from its thematic reviews of complaints with the insurance industry to “help the sector understand where it can make changes”. 

Speaking during a panel entitled ’Rethinking Trust in Personal Insurance’ at today’s (3 February 2026) ABI Conference, FOS ombudsman managing director Rachel Lam said that her organisation had a “once in a lifetime opportunity to address structural opportunities”, including ”building consistency with the FCA and much more clarity in how we do our work”. 

The panel addressed how the insurance sector could rebuild trust with customers, with Lam joined by Aviva general insurance chief executive Jason Storah, DAC Beachcroft chief executive Craig Dickinson and independent non-executive director Sacha Romanovitch. 

Lam explained: ”It is about how we register and setup complaints but, at the front end, how we really support customers through their cases to inform them about the issue, or what’s gone wrong, as they’re working through their complaint with us.

”Equally, even before a complaint, the other part of this is how we can do things like thematic reviews. How we really harness the insight across our casework and share that across the sector.

”We do some of that, but there’s a real opportunity for us to make a step change through our thematic reviews, to really share what we see across a range of firms and range of issues and share that insight, both deep and broad, to help the sector understand where it can make changes.” 

Trust in handling

Panellists at the ABI Conference noted that the need for this complaints data sharing was urgent, as insurance was one of the least trusted financial services industries within the retail sector. 

For example, Romanovitch polled attendees on whether they had encountered the practice of being quoted a higher price at renewal, which was then reduced when questioned.

“These are some of the things, in terms of practice, that don’t necessarily engender trust in the industry and how it operates,” she added. 

However, Storah explained that the issue of price in personal lines was a difficulty for insurers. He noted: ”The challenge we have is this juxtaposition between the cover that I need, and price, price, price.

”Price is such a driver of consumer decisions and that’s a dynamic not going to change anytime soon.” 

Despite this challenge, however, Storah noted that claims were the area where most claims originated from.

On this point, Lam added: ”It’d be no surprise to know that 60% of our case work is complaints. Customers that come to us from insurance [are] mainly around the claim, because it’s when things go wrong. It really, really matters.

”We actually find in favour of the consumers about 35% of the time, so the majority favour of the firms, but a lot of the problem comes from customers that just can’t understand why their claim hasn’t been paid or fully paid.

“It requires an explanation, so really good learning is sitting in the seat of the consumer to really understand how you can communicate in a way that they understand.”