How we handle complaints

When we receive a complaint about your financial business we’ll check that you have already had the chance to look at it and to try to resolve the complaint before we get involved. Once you’ve given the customer your final response, or the time to do so has passed, we’ll look into the complaint.  In summary:

• we’ll check the complaint is something we can deal with and we will ask you for your side of the story
• one of our case handlers will investigate and let you know the outcome based on what they think is fair and reasonable
• if you or your customer disagree with this, you can ask for a final decision from an ombudsman

While we determine each case individually based on its own merits, we have set out the typical information we would normally expect to receive from financial businesses based on the type of complaint. You can use our online tool to find out more about what to send us in some of the more common areas of complaint we see. We may ask for further information or documents, depending on the circumstances of the case.

Both parties can provide additional information they think is relevant in the circumstances of the individual complaint. But our case handlers and our ombudsmen will determine what information they need to see on each case.

If either party fails to provide information we have asked for in the time given in each case, we may proceed with out investigation and reach an initial assessment or a final decision on the information we do have.

In all cases, we will need a copy of the final response letter and a clear outline of your current position.

Our jurisdiction is determined by applying the Dispute Resolution (DISP) rules that govern our service to the facts of each individual complaint.

If you think the complaint falls outside of our jurisdiction for one of the factual reasons set out, please tell us as soon as possible and provide the relevant supporting documentation. 

We set out a summary of our jurisdiction and the information we need to see if you think we cannot investigate the complaint.

A case handler will look into the complaint and contact you and the customer by phone, email or post. We’ll keep you updated throughout our investigation.

You should send us anything you think is important, even if we haven’t asked for it. We provide a way for businesses to check the information they should send to us as part of a complaint or case file, covering the specific types of complaint we tend to see most often, across a range of industry sectors. We may ask for further information or documents, depending on the circumstances of the case. We’ll let you know what we need, and by when.

If there’s a reason you can’t send us the information by the date we’ve asked for it, it is important that you let us know straight away. If we do not hear from you by the deadline we’ve set, we can move things on to the next stage of our process – this could mean, for example, that we continue with our investigation and issue findings based on the information we have available,  in the absence of a response. You can read more about our powers to resolve and decide complaints in how we make decisions.

While we’re dealing with the complaint

While we consider a complaint, you can continue to deal with your customer as normal. But if anything you do is relevant to the complaint, or you want to make an offer to resolve things, you should let us know. 

We’re likely to recommend that you wait until we’ve finished investigating the complaint before you take any related legal action (such as proceedings to recover a debt).

You should tell us about any action you’re thinking of taking.

Making an offer to proactively settle a complaint 

Our proactive settlement scheme gives you the opportunity to make a new offer to resolve a complaint early on in our process – within 14 days of us informing you that a complaint has been moved to investigation. 

It allows you to reassess if what you have offered to date is fair and the chance to resolve a customer’s complaint promptly. 

If you decide to make an offer to resolve a complaint at this point, shortly after we move it to investigation, and the consumer accepts it, this may count as a ‘proactively settled’ complaint.

Proactively settled complaints aren’t recorded as a change in favour of the consumer in our half-yearly complaints data. This means they don’t count towards your change in outcome rate and will be recorded separately.

It became an established part of our process in April 2024 following an initial trial. From June 2024, following feedback from financial businesses who used the settlement process, and our review of the trial overall, we formalised the process that applies. In summary: 

• You must make an offer – or notify us that you’re going to make an offer – within 14 calendar days of us telling you we’ve moved a complaint to investigation.  

• The offer should be different from any previous offer you have made to your customer, including in your business’s final response letter .
• You should make it clear you are making a proactive settlement offer and explain why you are making the offer – and provide relevant supporting information.   

• We’ll let the consumer know you have made an offer. We’ll tell them if the offer appears fair and is likely to be in line with our approach, or if we’re unable to determine this without further information. Consumers can then decide whether to accept the offer or if they’d like us to carry out investigation.

• If the consumer accepts the offer, we’ll record it as proactively settled and consider the complaint resolved. 

The complaint won’t count as proactively settled if the consumer doesn’t accept the offer, or the offer’s made outside of the timing set out above.  

It also won’t count as proactively settled if you make an offer directly to the consumer after we move the case to investigation. It must come through us, and be made within 14 days of us informing you that a complaint is moving to investigation, otherwise we’ll record it as a change in outcome. 

More detail about this can be found in our scheme criteria (PDF 101KB) for proactively settled complaints.

Where to send your offer and supporting evidence

You should send the offer and supporting evidence to [email protected], making it clear that the case is a 14-day proactive settlement offer. Some firms have said they can’t include this wording in the subject line, but where you can, it will be helpful. We’ll then be able to identify the case and ensure it is dealt with quickly. 

We’ll check whether the offer looks fair and in line with our approach, based on the information we have, before putting it to the consumer. It’s important to give us enough information to help us do this. This could range from details of a consumer’s financial losses on a case involving a scam to a detailed explanation about how a customer has been impacted by poor customer service. 

Case fees and proactively settled complaints

We charge a standard case fee for these complaints. 

We’ll weigh up everything we’ve been given and tell you and your customer what we think. We’ll often do this over the phone, but we’ll always follow up our view in writing.

Where we think you’ve treated your customer fairly, we’ll say so. But if we think they’ve lost out, we’ll explain why and what you need to do to put things right. Most complaints are resolved at this stage.

If you or your customer don’t agree with what we’ve said, you can ask for the complaint to be referred to an ombudsman.

If an ombudsman looks into your case, you’ll need to send any relevant information we haven’t already seen before they issue their decision. We’ll give you plenty of opportunity to do this.

The ombudsman will look at all the information and individual circumstances of the complaint, taking into account things like relevant law, regulations and good practice. They’ll decide what’s fair and reasonable in their opinion, and give the consumer a certain amount of time to accept or reject their decision.

An ombudsman’s decision marks the end of our involvement in the dispute.

If the customer accepts the decision 

If your customer accepts our final decision within the time given, it’s legally binding for both parties. You’ll have to do what the ombudsman has said to put things right. You should comply promptly with any award or direction that’s made. 

When we send out a final decision that makes an award or direction in favour of your customer, we will tell them that you will be in touch within four weeks to settle the complaint.  

So it’s important you take steps to arrange settlement with your customer as soon as possible and within four weeks at the most. 

• Specified money, interest and costs awards (such as compensation for distress and inconvenience or financial loss) should be quite straightforward to arrange. We expect the customer to be paid as soon as possible. We do not expect this type of payment to take more than four weeks to arrange and pay. 

• Money awards requiring a calculation can be more complex, and might take longer to arrange and pay. If you need more detail from your customer to assist you with a calculation, or any third parties, contact them as soon as possible and keep them informed about how long you expect it to take. 

• Directions, such as reconsidering a claim, paying a claim or changing or updating information on a credit file, should be dealt with as quickly as possible. Remember the customer may have already been waiting for some time during the original claim or complaint handling process.  

If at any point you think it might take more than four weeks to fulfil the ombudsman’s directions as set out in the final decision, you should make sure you contact your customer so that they understand the next steps and when they can expect to receive payment or hear from you next.  

If the customer doesn’t accept the decision 

If your customer doesn’t accept the decision, then it isn’t binding. However, they could still choose to take the issue to court. 

Occasionally, a customer might accept the decision after the deadline has passed. If this happens, we’ll let you know if the decision is still binding. 

If you don’t pay an award or take the required action promptly 

If your customer contacts us to let us know you haven’t complied with the final decision within four weeks, we will contact you and ask you to provide a meaningful update on your progress. 

If you don’t pay the award or respond to us, or provide a reason why settlement cannot be made within the next 14 days, we may decide to notify the FCA so they can take further action if appropriate.  

We will also provide your customer with information about how to legally enforce a final decision so, if it becomes necessary, they can take action on this through the courts.  

We understand there will sometimes be issues outside of your firm’s control that might mean an award takes longer to comply with, but its important you keep your customer up to date about this and when you expect to be able to pay or carry out what’s been asked of you so that further action isn’t taken unnecessarily.  

If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled a case, let us know why and we’ll review the level of service we gave you.

Please be aware this isn’t a way of reviewing the outcome of a case.

Find out how to complain about our service.

If you’ve got questions about our general approach, you can contact our Business Support Hub, which is a free service for businesses.