When a complaint is received by the FSPO, the Registry and Assessment team of the Customer Operations and Information Management (COIM) directorate reviews and assesses it. This initial assessment provides an opportunity for the FSPO to determine if the complainant has provided all the necessary eligibility information to progress the complaint through our complaint resolution processes and to ensure the provider has been given the opportunity to resolve the complaint first.
In many cases, this preliminary work allows the complaint to close, if the complainant is subsequently satisfied with the provider’s resolution of the complaint.
The jurisdiction of the FSPO is set out in the FSPO Act and the FSPO may only investigate complaints that come within its jurisdiction.
Not all complaints are eligible for investigation by the FSPO and so the assessment of the complaint’s eligibility takes place at the earliest possible stage. This may include determining whether the conduct complained of falls within the statutory time limits as set out in the FSPO Act, checking that consent has been provided by all of the account or policy owners, or the FSPO may need to check if a financial service provider is regulated.
This early assessment service has enabled the FSPO to use its resources in the most efficient manner. More importantly, this service has enabled the FSPO to provide a greatly improved customer experience, ensuring the complainant is informed early on in the process if their complaint falls outside the FSPO’s remit.
In some circumstances, the complaint may need to be referred to the Legal Services team for a detailed legal assessment to determine whether a complaint falls in the FSPO’s jurisdiction.
During 2022, the FSPO closed 2,090 complaints within its Customer Operations and Information Management Department. 206 complaints were closed within its Legal Services Department. The sum of these two numbers may be the 2,296 complaints to which the Deputy refers.
Many of these complaints were closed because they were withdrawn by the complainant, often due to a resolution having been achieved with the provider after the complaint was made to the FSPO.
In other complaints, the FSPO concluded that the complaint did not come within its statutory jurisdiction. The FSPO cannot investigate complaints that do not come within its jurisdiction under the FSPO Act.
The FSPO has details available on its website with respect to the types of complaints that it can investigate and the statutory jurisdiction of the FSPO, including:
• Informational Videos and Leaflets on its services in the “Our Services” section.
• Details with respect to some jurisdictional issues in the “Legal References” section.
• Annual Published Overviews of Complaints, which include case studies.
