The Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (FSPO) plays a vital role in the financial consumer protection framework in Ireland. The FSPO is committed to providing a receptive service that is delivered in an accessible and inclusive manner, responsive to the needs of its customers.
The FSPO adheres to ‘Our Public Service’, a framework developed by the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan and Reform for innovation and continuous development in Ireland’s public service.
The annual volumes of customer service complaints recorded by the FSPO since 2019 are as follows:
|
2019
|
68
|
|
2020
|
78
|
|
2021
|
66
|
|
2022
|
58
|
|
2023
|
79
|
The FSPO has segregated the management of customer service complaints from operational directorates involved in the management of financial service and pension complaints, allocating responsibility for these reviews to an entirely separate and independent strategic process.
The FSPO operates a Customer Charter and Customer Action Plan, which outline the standard of service and behaviour underpinning all interactions with customers and describe the FSPO’s policy of encouraging feedback from its customers, evaluating that feedback and, where possible, continuously improving on the quality of service offered.
With regard to the oversight of the FSPO, Part 4 of the 2017 FSPO Act also sets out the role of the FSPO Council, which is independently and robustly chaired, and which includes the FSPO’s oversight role in terms of keeping the efficiency and effectiveness of the Ombudsman under review.
As a body under the aegis of the Department of Finance, my officials regularly engage with the FSPO and the Council, including in terms of its capacity and capability as evidenced by the recent sanctioning of the 2024-2026 FSPO Workforce Plan.
The Department of Finance, in consultation with key stakeholders, also concluded a Periodic Critical Review of the FSPO which was published on its website in June 2023.
While the Minister has no role in the investigation of complaints brought to the FSPO under the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman Act 2017, there is a Service Level, Oversight and Performance Delivery Agreement in place between the Department of Finance and the Office of the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman, in accordance with the Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies (2016).
This sets out the arrangements for oversight, monitoring and reporting and also sets out the FSPO’s commitments regarding the operational roles, responsibilities, outputs and outcomes.
The FSPO is also accountable to the Public Accounts Committee and to other Oireachtas Committees under Sections 22 and 23 of the 2017 FSPO Act. In recent years, the FSPO has appeared regularly before the Committee on Public Petitions and the Ombudsmen.
In the UK, the Independent Assessor is appointed by the Board of the Financial Ombudsman Service and can consider complaints made about the standard of service provided by the UK Financial Ombudsman Service. This process covers the practical handling of a complaint, but it does not include disagreements about the outcome of a complaint investigation.
Further, unlike the UK, the FSPO imposes no such restriction on the investigation of customer service complaints received during the course of an active complaint investigation.
