Festival refunds are not guaranteed so know your rights, warns the Financial Ombudsman Service
4 June 2026
As festival season gets going, many consumers may not understand their rights to getting their money back if things go wrong.
The Financial Ombudsman Service has announced the appointment of Marc Harris as Chief Operating Officer.
Marc brings a wealth of experience to the role, having spent the last 20 years working in regulated financial services companies across change management, transformation and digital journeys, and leading operations and transformation within regulated environments.
Marc joined at the beginning of January and his key responsibilities are transformation and continuous improvement, planning, forecasting and performance, IT and data and analytics teams. Marc takes over from Karl Khan who will leave the Financial Ombudsman at the end of this month.
Chief Executive and Chief Ombudsman Abby Thomas said:
I’m delighted to welcome Marc Harris to the Financial Ombudsman Service as our new Chief Operating Officer. Marc is a great addition to our executive team and will play a key role in helping us deliver on the big ambitions we have for our service.
I’d like to thank Karl Khan for his leadership and support and wish him the best for the future.”
Marc Harris said:
I am excited and honoured to be joining the Financial Ombudsman Service, to have the opportunity to lead vital enabling functions and drive the ambitious transformation agenda, to support customers to get fair, timely and effective resolutions to complaints by delivering positive outcomes for the service.”
Marc has spent the last 20 years of his career working in regulated financial services companies, starting out in change management for Fidelity International, and working for several asset managers and banks including Octopus Investments and Close Brothers, as well as helping to grow a FinTech called ThinCats. Marc has most recently been working with banks undertaking transformation journeys focused on customer-centric digital enablement journeys, most recently as COO of Alpha Bank London. Marc is experienced in leading operations and enabling change and transformation within regulated environments.
4 June 2026
As festival season gets going, many consumers may not understand their rights to getting their money back if things go wrong.
15 April 2026
Employees voted to support Dementia UK – the UK’s specialist dementia nursing charity – over the next two years.
1 April 2026
The Financial Conduct Authority has confirmed the increase to our award limits for the coming financial year.