HOW EFFECTIVE CAN YOU BE
in such a small community as Jersey by Douglas Melville, Principal Ombudsman & Chief Executive, Channel Islands Financial Ombudsman (CIFO)
Ombudsman (CIFO) is the independent dispute-resolution service for unresolved complaints against financial services provided in or from the islands that comprise the Channel Islands (Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney and Sark). This means that complaints come not only from local consumers, small businesses and some charities, but also from those customers of our local financial services providers (FSPs) anywhere in the world. In fact, most of our complaints originate from outside the Channel Islands (64% of complaints since we started). This means that our service model, how we interact with complainants to resolve their complaints, needs to be effective for both local and international complainants.
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Telephone calls and email are how we can work efficiently with complainants and FSPs. By agreement between the States of Jersey and Guernsey, and to minimise cost, CIFO operates a single office in Jersey, overseen by a board of directors appointed by both governments. Since CIFO opened in November 2015 the office has received over 2,700 complaints (434 in 2018 alone) each of which needed to be resolved with minimum formality offering a more accessible and affordable alternative to court proceedings. This can be a daunting task as we seek to provide the same standard of service to both local complainants and those from as far away as Africa and Asia.
“Effectiveness” can mean many things depending on your perspective. Consumers and FSPs are both likely interested in
great question, and one that has guided the creation of this free new service in the Channel Islands since our creation in 2015.
The Channel Islands Financial
the proportion of complaints resolved in favour of consumers and how that happened. In 2018, 115 in-mandate complaints were resolved. Most (86) were by helping the complainant and the FSP agree a solution through mediation, with a smaller proportion (29) needing investigation and a binding decision from the Ombudsman. The majority, 58% of resolved in-mandate complaints were upheld in favour of the complainant, 35% were upheld in favour of the FSP, the remaining 7% were withdrawn.
How quickly a decision can be made is also an important consideration. The volume of complaints referred to the office when we opened significantly exceeded our expectations, and our capacity. We have since added new case handlers to the team who, once they are trained and gain experience, take on their share of the office’s case load. We admittedly have not been as fast at resolving complaints as we would have wished. CIFO is tightly focused on reducing the time being taken to resolve complaints but it requires more than just the addition of staff resources, which we have done. It is also about the approach taken to resolving complaints. CIFO uses a variety of different approaches, including forms of mediation and conciliation, and where necessary binding decisions following full investigation.
In CIFO’s experience, complaint resolution through mediation is a faster and more effective solution and, if an agreement can be found, it also helps maintain effective consumer-FSP relationships and uses far less of CIFO’s limited resources. The key for the consumer is that they do not have to accept a mediated solution; they can always refer their complaint to the
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20/20 - Finance
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