Chris Cummings, director general, AIFA, said: "We need a fair and balanced dispute resolution service that works for both consumers and the financial services industry. At present the costs are not distributed proportionately across the industry. The fall in the levy on intermediaries is a step in the right direction. But the profession still bears a disproportionate level of the overall ombudsman service budget. The intermediary profession is responsible for just 3% of all complaints while funding over 10% of the ombudsman's budget.
"In October we called for a thorough review of the ombudsman system and therefore welcome the commitment to commission a value for money assessment by the National Audit Office. We will seek to ensure this review considers the relative costs for different sectors of the industry. However, we believe this should be part of a much wider review of the role of the ombudsman in light of the possible changes to the regulatory architecture."
