26 July 2004
The independent report into the Financial Ombudsman Service by Professor Elaine Kempson has today been published in full.
The report follows a six months' assessment of the operations of the ombudsman service by Professor Kempson and a team of researchers from Bristol University's Personal Finance Research Centre. The assessment was commissioned in January 2004 by the board of the Financial Ombudsman Service.
The report - "Fair and reasonable: an assessment of the Financial Ombudsman Service" - contains a detailed overview of the ombudsman service's case-handling procedures and systems. It also examines the organisation's performance in terms of quality, consistency, process and value.
Professor Kempson's report concludes with the "overall view that the Financial Ombudsman Service is a thoughtful, well-managed organisation that is doing a good job under difficult circumstances."