The Chair of the Board of the Financial Ombudsman Service Limited (FOS), Peter E Daly AM, recently announced the following appointments.

Transcription

1 Issue 58, 24 June 2008 IN THIS ISSUE: 1. APPOINTMENTS AT FOS 2. INCREASES TO FICS MONETARY LIMITS & APPLYING FOR TEMPORARY RELIEF 3. ASIC DECIDES TO TAKE NO ACTION IN RELATION TO CERTAIN PDS S AND FSG S THAT DO NOT REFER TO FOS 4. COMPLAINT FEE INVOICING UNDER FOS 5. TREVOR SLATER TO GO TO NZ 6. FINAL FICS BULLETIN 1. APPOINTMENTS AT FOS The Chair of the Board of the Financial Ombudsman Service Limited (FOS), Peter E Daly AM, recently announced the following appointments. First, Colin Neave has been appointed the Chief Ombudsman of the Financial Ombudsman Service. Philip Field is to be the Ombudsman Banking & Finance. The Ombudsman Investments, Life Insurance & Superannuation is to be Alison Maynard, and the Ombudsman General Insurance is to be Sam Parrino. The appointments will take effect from 1 July A more formal announcement will be made around the launch of the new scheme in early July. 2. INCREASES TO FICS MONETARY LIMITS & APPLYING FOR TEMPORARY RELIEF Important reminder to FICS Members The FICS monetary limits will increase on 1 July The FICS Rules from 1 July 2008, incorporating the increases to the limits, can be found at:

2 There are also Frequently Asked Questions for complainants and members - to help explain how these increases may affect them - available at Please remember that if your current professional indemnity/public liability insurance policy is due for renewal between 1 July and 31 December 2008, you may be entitled to temporary relief from the increases, provided: the current policy does not provide sufficient cover to meet the increased monetary limit; and reasonable attempts were made before 1 July 2008 to negotiate increased cover, but were unsuccessful. Applications must be received by FICS before 1 July 2008 to be considered. From 1 July 2008, FOS will come into operation. The increases to the FICS monetary limits and the transitional provisions, including any temporary relief from the increases granted to current FICS members are reflected in the FOS Investments, Life Insurance & Superannuation Terms of Reference. For more information, please contact Mike D Argaville, FICS Legal Counsel, by mdargaville@fics.asn.au or by phone on (03) ASIC DECIDES TO TAKE NO ACTION IN RELATION TO CERTAIN PDS S AND FSG S THAT DO NOT REFER TO FOS The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has considered the application for relief made on behalf of the members of the BFSO, FICS and IOS (the Existing Schemes ) transferring to the Financial Ombudsman Service Limited (FOS) on or after 1 July The application sought a modification of certain provisions of the Corporations Act (the Act) in order to facilitate the transition of the existing schemes to FOS. More specifically, the application sought relief from the requirements of those sections of the Act and RG 165 that require a licensed financial services provider or an authorised representative to provide up to date information in their PDSs and FSGs about how to access their external dispute resolution scheme.

3 ASIC s decision ASIC has now made its decision which is in the form of a no action letter. ASIC will take no action against the members for breaches of sections 941E and 1012J of the Act, the requirements to keep the information PDSs and FSGs up to date, in circumstances where: 1. the PDS or FSG is printed prior to 1 July the Member has become a member of FOS, and 3. the Member has not included information about FOS in the relevant PDS or FSG. This no action position is provided on the following conditions: 1. the PDS or FSG was up to date at the time it was printed 2. the Member must provide details of FOS to a consumer who requests the information or makes a complaint. The information may be provided in writing, orally or via a website, and 3. for complaints that are unresolved after having been through a Member's IDR procedures, the Member must inform the complainant that they have a right to pursue their complaint with FOS and provide details of how to access FOS. This no action position is also conditional on FOS maintaining re-direction arrangements for all communications to the Existing Schemes which have the effect that if a consumer contacts an existing scheme, that consumer is directed to FOS (details of the re-direction arrangements are set out in application dated 28 April 2008). This no action position will apply only until the next reprint of the PDS or FSG, or until 30 September 2009, whichever comes first. Where information about EDR schemes is contained in documents which are not printed, or is set out on a website, members are expected to keep that information up to date and include details of FOS. This does not apply to a copy of a printed PDS or FSG available on a website. A full copy of ASIC s decision can be found at the end of this bulletin. The letter contains other pro forma conditions to which members should refer.

4 ASIC decided to proceed with a no action letter as opposed to the granting of relief because it is of the view that no action in this instance would provide sufficient certainty to members. For more information about ASIC s no action letter, please contact Philip Field on Automatic updating the ASIC licensee register Members of BFSO, FICS and IOS are reminded that FOS and ASIC have agreed that, provided a current member s FOS membership application form is returned before 31 July 2008, FOS will provide ASIC with details of its new members and ASIC will update the ASIC Australian Financial Services licensee register to show that particular licensees have become members of FOS; This means that individual licensees who return their membership form by 31 July do not have to notify ASIC of their membership of FOS. Of course, FICS encourages members to return their forms as soon as possible, well before 31 July For further information about updating the ASIC licensee register, please contact Denny Meadows on or (03) COMPLAINT FEE INVOICING UNDER FOS FICS members will be moving into the Investments Life Insurance & Superannuation division of the Financial Ombudsman Service. Complaint fees will be invoiced by FOS Investments, Life Insurance & Superannuation on the same basis as they have been by FICS. However, there will be a change to the point at which complaint fees are incurred. Members will still be invoiced the initial fee at the same time as before, but other fees will be invoiced at the end of the each stage of the process. Before and after example FICS members are currently invoiced for a new part of the complaint handling process (or status) when a complaint moves into that status. For example: when a complaint is referred to the Panel by the case manager the Panel fee is incurred and invoiced.

5 However from 1 July 2008, FOS Investments, Life Insurance & Superannuation members will be invoiced after the work on the billable part of the process has been completed. For example: the case manager investigation fee will be charged after the case is closed by the case manager (e.g. because it is settled) or is referred to the Panel/ Adjudicator. The Panel / Adjudicator fee will be charged after the determination has been issued or, if the case is settled, after it has been closed. If you have any questions about how FOS complaint fee invoicing will work please call Denny Meadows, National Operations Manager, on or TREVOR SLATER TO GO TO NZ FICS National Relations Manger for six and a half years, Trevor Slater, is sadly leaving FICS to take up a new post with the Banking Ombudsman of New Zealand. Among his many achievements at FICS, Trevor developed our conciliation conference procedures and the FICS IDR process, as well as running very successful IDR workshops over several years, which many members will have participated in. We wish him well for the future. 6. FINAL FICS BULLETIN This will be the last FICS Bulletin, but look out for a new FOS newsletter coming soon. Regards Alison Maynard FICS Chief Executive Ph: (03) amaynard@fics.asn.au

6

7

8