The Financial Ombudsman Service will introduce a ‘proactively settled’ category trial for the way it reports business-specific complaints data.

This follows a consultation the FOS ran and is based on the feedback it received.

This is another way in which the FOS feels it can reduce its backlog, an issue that over 2022 the service believes it is “making good progress in”.

Initially the ‘proactively settled’ category will run as a trial period for the 2023/24 financial year.

This initiative will only apply to business requests which are filed on or after 1 April 2023.

Within 21 days of requesting the respondent business file, the business may offer to settle the complaint but FOS must be informed within 14 days to make an offer.

The FOS needs to receive an offer from the financial business within the 21 days to review the offer and determine if it is fair.

In October 2021, the FOS consulted on a temporary initiative to amend how it records proactively settled cases, which “was warmly received by stakeholders”.

The five-month initiative saw around 100 businesses make nearly 7,000 offers to resolve complaints which had a “substantial impact on its queue”.

Numerous respondents felt this change should be adopted permanently which was raised in both its 2022 funding discussion paper and 2023/24 plans and budget consultation.

The FOS received 56 responses to its consultation which were mostly welcoming, however, some issues were raised.

Key challenges included the suitability of the initiative for ongoing cases handling purposes rather than just backlog reduction.

And a perception that it was unfair to charge a full case fee for these cases.

FOS chief executive and chief ombudsman Abby Thomas says: “Our core purpose is to resolve disputes between financial services businesses and their customers in a fair, informal and efficient way. We have long produced fair and high-quality outcomes, but we know that we need to do more to provide these outcomes quicker.

“Working with financial services businesses in a pragmatic and transparent manner is a key part of producing the right outcomes for all parties.

“We have heard from financial services businesses that amending how we record proactively settled cases would be proportionate and fair, as well as a strong incentive to resolve cases even earlier.

“In 2021/22, we ran a five month pilot, which led to around 100 businesses making nearly 7,000 offers to resolve complaints and securing around £22m in consumer redress.

“As such, we are keen to undertake a further trial to see if this initiative is suitable as a more permanent change that will generate faster resolutions whilst maintaining fair and high-quality outcomes.”