FOS set to name and shame companies

This follows an independent report by Lord Hunt of the Wirral, published in April 2008, which recommended that greater transparency in complaints-handling should include the ombudsman making information publicly available about how individual financial businesses deal with complaints.

The plans include proposals to publish half-yearly:

* the number of complaints referred to the ombudsman service in relation to the 150 or so financial businesses which produce most cases;

* the percentage of "upheld" complaints – where the outcome changed in favour of the consumer following the ombudsman service's involvement.

The ombudsman service seeks comments – from all interested parties – on a number of specific practical issues, such as:

* how to show data for financial businesses that operate under various trading names;

* how data on the outcome of complaints should be verified;

* what period the data should cover;

* how far it is possible to put the data in a wider context (such as the size of the businesses concerned).

The Financial Ombudsman Service's plans for the publication of complaints data are separate from – but complementary to – proposals that the Financial Services Authority (FSA) published in May 2008. The FSA's proposals for publishing complaints data relate to the information it receives from regulated firms – about the number and outcome of complaints that firms have received from consumers.