Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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196. To ask the Minister for Finance to provide for each year from 2020 to date, the number of complaints received by the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman; the number of complaints determined; the number of complaints remaining open at the end of each year; and the average wait time from receipt of complaint to determination; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16445/25]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The FSPO provides an independent, fair, impartial, confidential and free service for consumers to resolve complaints against financial service providers and pension providers.

Complaints are resolved through either informal mediation, leading to a potential settlement agreed between the parties, or formal investigation and adjudication, leading to a legally binding decision.

The majority of complaints are resolved through their mediation services.

In 2024, 86% of complaints that closed, were closed within 12 months of the complaint being made. This was mainly through resolution in their Dispute Resolution Services (mediation) and early-stage assessments and interventions in their Customer Operations and Information Management department.

For all complaints that closed in 2024, including tracker mortgage complaints, the average time from receipt of complaint to closure, was 8.4 months. For non-tracker mortgage complaints that closed in 2024, the average time from receipt to closure, was 7.2 months.

Certain more complex complaints, including those requiring a formal adjudication process or formal jurisdictional assessment, or both, take longer to resolve. This reflects the fact that adjudications by the Ombudsman are legally binding and accordingly, it is important that every decision arrived at has followed due process and allowed both parties to make submissions and offer observations on the evidence and on the other party’s submissions, as appropriate.

The table provided shows the number of complaints received, the number of complaints closed and the number of complaints on hand on 31 December each year from 2020 to 2024.

Table 1. Number of complaints received 2020-2024