Ombudsman Foreword

Highlights

Telephone Service

New Disputes

Dispute Resolution Process

Complete Annual Report

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This year marks the fifteenth anniversary of the commencement of the BFSO Scheme. From a service that started with 17 member banks and 16 staff, the Scheme has grown considerably. We now employ 44 staff, and have 64 members including banks, mortgage brokers, financial planners, debt collection agencies, foreign exchange providers and non cash payment facilitators.

I welcome the 16 new members who have joined the Scheme during the year,
and look forward to a co-operative relationship with them.

For the third consecutive year, there has been a decline in the number of telephone enquiries received by BFSO. The number of written disputes lodged, however, has risen by 4.2 per cent. A significant proportion of these written disputes raise issues which contribute to the increasing complexity of disputes which come to us for resolution. The efforts made by my staff, in particular the case management and legal counsel teams, to resolve the disputes as efficiently as possible and also provide members and consumers with guidance about the difficult issues raised by the cases, is to be commended.
As stated in the Chairman's Message, the Independent Review of the operations and procedures of BFSO was completed in November 2004. I am very pleased with the outcome of the Review as it confirmed that the Scheme is operating extremely well.
In summary, the reviewer found:

"...the BFSO scheme is a very successful operation - widely and strongly endorsed by its stakeholders and demonstrably meeting each of the ASIC PS 139 benchmarks. Our observation and investigation found an environment of professional management, strong systems, high standards of quality and performance, sustained staff morale and active continuous improvement."

Against this backdrop, a series of recommendations were made which the reviewer described in the following way:

"The recommendations for change that we have made ... are not dramatic; rather they are incremental in nature and involve minor refinements, shifts in emphasis and adjustments to process and policy."

Most recommendations were accepted by the Board and a great deal of work has been undertaken by our staff to implement the initiatives as quickly as possible. I am pleased to report that the majority of the recommendations have now been implemented and work is well underway on the remaining projects.
I take this opportunity to thank the Board for the support it has given to the Scheme during the year. In particular, the contribution that Michael Lavarch has made in his first year as Chairman has been outstanding and much appreciated by both myself and the members of the Board.
I also thank my staff for their dedication and enthusiasm this year. Their professionalism and expertise has enabled BFSO to continue to provide a high quality service in an ever changing environment.

Colin Neave AM
Banking and Financial Services Ombudsman