The merger between the Financial Industry Complaints Service (FICS), Insurance Ombudsman Service (IOS) and Banking and Financial Services Ombudsman (BFSO) is set to be finalised mid-year.
The three schemes will merge together to form the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) on July 1.
Under the new structure there would be an ombudsman in control of the three existing schemes, which would become divisions of FOS, FICS chief executive Alison Maynard said.
“There will be one chief ombudsman and then there will be an ombudsman for each of the divisions and those divisions will reflect the pre-existing schemes,” Maynard said.
It is not expected the existing three schemes will retain their names under the merger.
“FICS is the division that’s likely to change its name. We’re still in the process of making recommendation to the committee on a new title,” Maynard said.
As well as possible name changes for the divisions, FOS intends to conduct a complete review of the rules or terms of reference for FICS, IOS and BFSO in the next 15 months.
The review will attempt to streamline a standard set of rules and associated procedures and policies for FOS. The new procedures are expected to be in place by January 2010.
As part of the merger, the board of FOS plans to form advisory committees to deal with the different sectors of the financial services industry.
The committees will cover banks, finance and mortgage brokers, financial planners, fund managers, general insurers, life insurers, other deposit-taking institutions and stockbrokers.
Maynard will join members of the three schemes, including BFSO’s Colin Neave and IOS’ Sam Parrino, on a roadshow this month to speak with association members about the merger.
