key facts

• It’s our job to sort out individual complaints that consumers and financial businesses haven't been able to resolve themselves.
• We were set up by parliament to do this – as independent experts – and our service is free to consumers.
• We can look at complaints about a wide range of financial matters – from insurance and mortgages to investments and credit. Each year we deal with a million enquiries and settle over 150,000 disputes.
• We’re completely independent and impartial. This means that when we decide a complaint, we look carefully at both sides of the story and weigh up all the facts.
• If we decide a business has treated the consumer fairly, we will explain why. But if we decide the business has acted wrongly – and the consumer has lost out as a result – we can order it to put things right.
• Depending how complicated a case is, we can sort out some complaints within just a few months – but some can take over a year.
• Consumers don’t have to accept any decision we make. They are always free to go to court instead. But if they do accept an ombudsman's decision, it is binding both on them and on the business.
  
• We don't write the rules for businesses – or fine them if rules are broken. That is the job of the regulator.

All businesses covered by the ombudsman service pay a levy, to contribute to our costs. The amount of levy that each individual business has to pay can range from around £100 a year for a small firm of financial advisers to over £300,000 for a high-street bank or major insurance company.

SOURCE THE FINACIAL OMBUDSMAN WEBSITE

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/faq/answers/research_a5.html