Select a region
The Channel Islands Financial Ombudsman has handled 2,500 cases in its first three years of operation.
In its annual report for 2018, Chief Executive and Principal Ombudsman Douglas Melville said investment complaints involving structured products were on the rise.
"Overall, the themes arising from the complaints received in 2018 were similar in most respects to the themes seen in 2017, with banking complaints continuing to be the most prevalent and poor administration and delay, account closures and transaction errors the most common specific issues," said Mr Melville.
"There were a few notable additions this year. Investment complaints involving structured products that began to mature in 2018 point to a possible future spike in complaints about the suitability of these sometimes-complex investment products for the investors who were sold them.
"We understand that many more of these types of investments are scheduled to mature starting in 2019. Pension transfers have also arisen as a challenging area of complaints mirroring the significant attention such issues have attracted in the UK recently."
Of the 434 complaints received by CIFO in 2018, 48% related to the banking sector.
Although this will put pressure on the Ombudsman's office, Mr Melville said they were looking to strengthen their team this year to meet the increasing demand.
"At the best of times, complaint handling is difficult work that involves a complex mix of empathy, patience, tenacity and analytical rigour in a high-volume environment. Circumstances have forced many on the CIFO team to deal with an increased workload, take on additional duties to cover for staff vacancies, contend with the unanticipated load of a legal challenge, and yet continue to reach fair and reasonable decisions on a large number of customer complaints.
"The quality of our decisions and the validation of our work inherent in the recent court decision are evidence that they have met the challenges of 2018 with distinction and I am very grateful to everyone on the team for their collective and individual contributions.
"With the strengthened team we will assemble in 2019, we can look forward to increasing our capacity to resolve complaints, to further mature the office and continue to tackle with integrity the important public interest mandate we serve.
Pictured top: The CI Ombudsman team, as pictured in the annual report. Douglas Melville is in the middle of the front row.
Comments
Comments on this story express the views of the commentator only, not Bailiwick Publishing. We are unable to guarantee the accuracy of any of those comments.