As a survey on the Financial Ombudsman revealed almost three-quarters of advisers see themselves as the victim of false accusations for compensation, how far is the industry from restoring confidence in the ombudsman system?
Panacea Adviser's recent survey on the FOS revealed 74% of advisers said they had experienced false or manufactured accusations in an attempt to gain compensation.
Some 17% of the 183 advisers polled thought awards had been made to compensate for an event which hadn't happened.
This figure had trebled compared to results from the survey in 2011. A requirement for cases to have tangible evidence was supported by 90% of advisers.
Derek Bradley, CEO of Panacea Adviser said: "When we conducted this same survey back in 2011 - a pre-RDR, pre-FCA time - the results showed that something was seriously wrong with a system which was meant to be fair, open and honest, and where complaints that firms could not resolve themselves were considered in an unbiased fashion based upon the evidence available and/or the balance of probability.
"Three years on it appears that all is far from well at FOS and that something has to be done to restore confidence in a system that so many - not just financial advisers - see as wrong.
"We completely understand that consumers absolutely have rights that should be protected but in doing so the consensus seems to be that those rights take precedent over everything else to the point that if a consumer complaint is not possible to uphold on the base of evidence available and/or probability, another way is found to effectively ‘re-engineer' a complaint against an adviser that a client did not make.
"We have also heard of adviser experiences where former clients contacted the Ombudsman to complain against a provider but were ‘coached' into changing their complaint so that it was against the adviser. This cannot be the right approach for what should be a completely impartial body."
The FOS has publicly said it is not an anti-adviser organisation. Speaking to the Treasury Committee on 15 October, chief executive Caroline Wayman said she is aware of advisers' concerns about FOS adjudications and is keen to show them it is "prepared to listen".
COVER asked FOS about adviser concerns around false claims. A spokesperson responded: "We know that some consumers may pursue their complaint in an unfocused and unbalanced manner that may make them look unreasonable to the business.
"But a consumer's failure to present a coherent and reasoned argument does not automatically mean that the case has no merit - or that their complaint must be ‘frivolous and vexatious'"
