Complaints against the regulators (the Bank of England, the FCA and the PRA)

1 February 2023: We are currently working to finalise our consultation response and revised Complaints Scheme. The Financial Services and Markets Bill currently going through Parliament contains provisions relating to the accountability of regulators. Our view is that it would be most appropriate to finalise changes to the Complaints Scheme after this process has concluded. We currently expect to publish our response to the consultation and the final revised Complaints Scheme in spring 2023.

21 April 2022: Following the publication of the Interest Rate Hedging Product review and the report from the Office of the Complaint’s Commissioner on the FCA’s handling of complaints in relation to London Capital & Finance (LCF), along with the FCA and the Bank we intend to finalise the revised Complaints Scheme and aim to publish the policy statement shortly, please note this will not be by the end of April 2022 as previously indicated.

December 2021: Further to the June 2021 update we would like to provide a further update on the publication of the policy statement following the Complaints Scheme consultation. In light of the publication of the independent review of the FSA/FCA’s supervisory intervention on Interest Rate Hedging Products, we now anticipate publishing the policy statement and revised Complaints Scheme by end of April 2022.

June 2021: Following closure of the consultation on proposals to amend the Complaints Scheme, the Regulators are currently analysing the responses received so that they can take further decisions about the proposals. In the meantime, the Regulators are conscious of the concerns raised by some respondents regarding the timing of the amendments to the Scheme. In light of this, the Regulators’ policy statement on the consultation and any changes to the Scheme will not be published until towards the end of 2021. This will allow time for the publication of the report following the independent review of the FSA/FCA’s supervisory intervention on Interest Rate Hedging Products and for any associated complaints to be lodged for consideration under the present Scheme.

Published on 21 July 2020

Overview

This Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and Bank of England (the Bank) consultation paper (CP) sets out proposed changes to their joint complaints scheme (the Scheme). The Scheme was set up under the Financial Services Act 2012 to cover the procedures for handling complaints against the regulators themselves (as opposed to complaints against regulated firms), and to describe the role of the independent Complaints Commissioner.

The CP proposes a new version of the Scheme to simplify its wording and make it more accessible to its main users – consumers and small businesses – as well as others. It also puts forward a more detailed description of the regulators’ approach to remedies, in particular ex-gratia compensatory payments (which is a payment made out of goodwill, without any legal obligation to make it).

This consultation may be of interest to anyone who is a potential or actual complainant under the Scheme. This includes regulated businesses and consumers of financial services. It may also be of interest to consumer advocates and action groups, trade associations, journalists and politicians, among others.

Implementation

The aim is for the new version of the Scheme to come into force as soon as reasonably practicable, after taking comments from the consultation into account.

Responses and next steps

The full consultation paper is hosted on the FCA’s website. Following correspondence with the Treasury Select Committee, we extended the period for responses to Monday 12 October 2020.

Following closure of the consultation on proposals to amend the complaints scheme, the regulators are currently analysing the responses received so that we can take further decisions about the proposals. In the meantime, the regulators are conscious of the concerns raised by some respondents regarding the timing of amendments to the scheme. In light of this, the policy statement on the consultation and any changes to the scheme will not be published until towards the end of 2021. This will allow time for the publication of the report following the independent review of the FSA/FCA’s supervisory intervention on Interest Rate Hedging Products, and for any associated complaints to be lodged for consideration under the present scheme.