The FOS fee will be £50 per firm for the financial year beginning in April 2005. Firms will be able to have two complaints a year investigated for no extra cost. Each subsequent complaint will incur a charge of £360.
The fees for mortgage intermediary firms are lower than those charged to IFAs who are to be pay £75 per year.
FOS spokesman David Cresswell explained: “We work with trade bodies to estimate how many complaints are expected to arise in the forthcoming year and how much money will be needed to deal with them.
“Once we have worked out a unit cost we are able to come to the fee.”
He went on to say that if there were fewer complaints than anticipated there was the possibility of fees being reduced next year.
“IFA firms had their fees reduced from £90 last year to £75 this year due to a £1.7 million surplus,” he said.
Cresswell also said that the £360 fee for additional complaints would help to subsidise the annual fee, so that firms who never had complaints were not paying for those who received multiple complaints.
Chris Cummings, director of AMI, commented: “Brokers should be pleased that the FOS has listened to the industry when deciding on its fees. AMI will continue to lobby for the interests of brokers with both the FSA and FOS.”
John Ellis, group public affairs director for the Personal Finance Society, also welcomed the announcement of the fee structure.
He said: “On the whole I think the FOS have been very fair. Some intermediaries will always baulk at paying any kind of fee but I think life would be more expensive without the FOS.”
