FICS / FOS changes: FSG & PDS reissue & Constitution Back |
 From 1 July 2008, the Banking and Financial Services Ombudsman (BFSO), Financial Industry Complaints Service (FICS) and Insurance Ombudsman Service (IOS) merged to become the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).
Financial services providers are required by the Corporations Act and ASIC RG165 to provide retail clients with details about their right to pursue a complaint with an external complaints scheme and how to access that scheme. One consequence of the creation of FOS is that references to BFSO, FICS or IOS in existing PDSs, FSGs and other brochures will not be accurate. Rather than require the printing of new disclosure documents to accommodate this change, FICS/FOS has obtained relief on behalf of Members so that FSGs and PDSs printed before 1 July 2008 must be updated by 30 September 2009 with the correct details (or at any reprint before then). SDIA has supported FICS in this initiative.
In May, SDIA was invited by ASIC to comment on the draft Constitution for the new scheme, FOS.
In our response we made the following points:
• the removal of the right of members to disallow Rules is opposed and will impact on the member support;
• SDIA is not recognised as an industry body as it was under the FICS Constitution;
• termination provisions are excessive and punitive; and
• interpretation issues will arise through not adopting terms defined in the Corporations Act.
In response to our concerns, while the veto power has been removed, FOS has incorporated a dispute resolution mechanism in the Constitution where the Board is divided on an issue.
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