Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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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:

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.

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Consumers can make a complaint against a “financial service provider", as defined in section 2 of the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman Act, 2017, as amended (the “2017 Act”). This definition includes a “regulated financial service provider” within the meaning of section 2(1) of the Central Bank Act 1942, as amended.

The functions and powers of the Ombudsman are prescribed by the 2017 Act.

Where a complaint is made against a provider who was not a “regulated financial service provider at the time the conduct complained of is said to have occurred, the FSPO does not have jurisdiction to investigate the conduct which is the subject matter of the complaint against that provider.

If a complaint is made concerning conduct on dates when a provider was unregulated but also conduct on dates after it became regulated the FSPO has jurisdiction to investigate the conduct which is said to have occurred on dates after the date the financial service provider became regulated.

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The majority of staff employed with the Financial and Pension Services Ombudsman (FSPO) are deemed to handle complaints, primarily as assigned case owners. The exceptions to this are staff working in support areas such as Corporate Services, HR and ICT.

Complaint handlers, as at year end, 31 December 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023

Following the approval of the FSPO’s Workforce Plan in December 2023, the sanctioned staff complement in the FSPO was increased from 90.2 to 128, an overall increase of 42% in staffing.

As at 1 February 2024 the number of staff (FTE) is 93. Arising from the approval of the Workforce Plan there are 35 further roles to be recruited, of which 30 relate to complaint handling roles (i.e. excluding support staff).

I am informed by the FSPO that this recruitment process has already commenced.

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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On receipt by the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (FSPO), all new complaints are reviewed and registered within two business days.

Where the initial review identifies the complaint as “complete” with all relevant information on hand, and compliance steps verified, the file is prepared for referral to the Dispute Resolution Service. Where the initial review identifies that further information or further assessment is appropriate, then the complaint is queued for further assessment, the current average time to assignment is 13 weeks. Of all the complaints currently on hand in the Registration and Assessment process the age by week received is set out in Table 1 below (including Tracker Mortgage related complaints).

There are 5,521 complaints open that have not received a Preliminary Decision. Table 2 breaks down this complaints data by year and month received. It is noted that most complaints are resolved in early stages or through mediation without the need to issue a preliminary decision. Accordingly, many of these complaints will not ultimately require a Preliminary Decision or a Legally Binding Decision, as set out in Table 2 below.

There are 5,583 complaints open and have not received a Legally Binding Decision. Table 3 in the attached breaks down this complaints data by year and month received. It is noted that most complaints are resolved in early stages or through mediation without the need to issue a Legally Binding Decision. Accordingly, many of these complaints will not ultimately require a Legally Binding Decision. See Table 3 below.

I am informed by the FSPO that the data contained in this response is extracted from a live database and therefore depicts complaint information at a specific moment in time. Data in this database is subject to ongoing verification and data categorisation as the understanding of the specific complaint is developed.