Complaints about other types of investment

Currently, the different regulatory bodies for firms conducting investment business each have a different scheme for the independent consideration of unresolved complaints. Until the Financial Ombudsman Service receives its full powers under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, we deal with complaints on their behalf under the rules of these different schemes.

The endowment cases we have mentioned were all handled by the Financial Ombudsman Service on behalf of, and under the rules of, the PIA Ombudsman Bureau. However, the investment division of the Financial Ombudsman Service also handles disputes on behalf of two smaller schemes:

• the Office of the Investment Ombudsman (for complaints about IMRO-regulated firms); and
• the Complaints Bureau of the SFA (for complaints about SFA-regulated firms).

The following two cases indicate the wide range of investment matters we deal with.