Financial Ombudsman Service, FSCL, Rated Accessible And Fair Dispute Resolution Service In Independent Review

An independent review report released today confirms that Financial Services Complaints Limited (FSCL), a financial ombudsman service, is delivering fair, accessible, and effective dispute resolution for New Zealand consumers.

The five-yearly review, undertaken by independent reviewer Nanette Moreau Hammond, found that the service is meeting its legislative requirements of fairness, independence, accessibility, effectiveness, accountability, and efficiency.

FSCL Board Chair, Jane Meares, says, “the review confirms that FSCL is delivering a professional, fair, and well-managed dispute resolution service.

“We’re proud of our team’s professionalism, integrity, and commitment to providing accessible justice in a dynamic and changing financial services environment.

“Timely, responsive, accessible, trusted, credible, easy to communicate with, and well-reasoned were some of the common themes from the stakeholders interviewed by Ms Moreau Hammond,” adds Ms Meares.

Ms Moreau Hammond makes recommendations to further strengthen FSCL’s services. These include conducting additional community outreach to assist vulnerable and disadvantaged consumers, and increasing engagement with FSCL’s 9,355 participants to ensure they meet their regulatory obligations of informing their customers of the complaint resolution service.

Financial Ombudsman and FSCL Chief Executive Officer, Susan Taylor, welcomes Ms Moreau Hammond’s recommendations. “The Board has accepted all the recommendations, and we are already implementing them.”

“One of the challenges highlighted is that 20% of financial services consumers are unaware of any dispute resolution options available to them,” adds Ms Taylor.

“We are actively working on increasing consumer awareness of our service and reaching more consumers, so they know help is available when they have a problem with their financial service provider.”

Notes:

The independent review is available at https://fscl.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/independent-review.pdf on FSCL’s website.

FSCL’s response to the reviewer’s recommendations is available at: https://fscl.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/independent-review-response.pdf

As an approved dispute resolution scheme under the Financial Service Providers (Registration and Dispute Resolution) Act 2008, FSCL is required to be independently reviewed every five years. This is its third review since the service launched in 2010.

About FSCL

The role of FSCL is to resolve consumer complaints about financial services that are participants of the FSCL scheme. This includes non-bank lenders, credit unions, insurance companies, financial advisers, including mortgage brokers and insurance brokers, corporate trustees, fund managers, transactional service providers, and card issuers.

Financial Services Complaints Limited (FSCL) was established in 2010 following the approval of the then Minister of Consumer Affairs under the Financial Service Providers (Registration and Dispute Resolution) Act 2008 (FSP Act). It is not-for-profit.

© Scoop Media