The FOS revealed the number of endowment complaints it had received had continued at the same pace as previous years, despite time-barring coming into effect.
David Cresswell, press officer at the FOS, said: “We still have to take a look at every complaint, even if it is time-barred. At the moment we are caught between two storms. On the one side you have intermediaries saying we are too generous to consumers, and should keep to the time bar rulings, but on the other side you have consumers stating that we are not hard enough on firms operating in the sector.”
James Cotton, mortgage specialist at London & Country, said he could understand the confusion over the time bar rulings. “I can understand where the insurers are coming from, stating that there is a three-year time bar ruling. Three years seems a decent amount of time to get a complaint in, so I can see why some people think the system is too lenient.”
He added: “Time-barring was put in place to make the whole complaints procedure more efficient, but if the FOS is still looking at every case then I understand the confusion.”
