information for businesses covered by the ombudsman service
This section answers a number of frequently-asked questions (FAQs) about:
how we handle cases
minding our own business
what right has the ombudsman got to tell firms how to run their business?
We have no right to do this – and it's not what we do. We are not a regulator, and parliament established us as separate body from the regulators – the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).
We decide the outcome of individual cases impartially and independently. We don't tell businesses how they should treat all their other customers.
However, we co-operate with the regulators where this is consistent with our separate, independent roles. And we tell the regulators if we come across an issue that may require regulatory action.
The ombudsman service and the FSA have specific arrangements for dealing with cases that have wider implications. These include special procedures for invoking the "wider implications process" – with a website that:
- explains the process in more detail and
- sets out the practical arrangements for co-operation between us and the FSA on these types of cases.