Ombudsman Foreword Highlights Telephone Service New Disputes Dispute Resolution Process Closed Cases Types of Disputes Systemic Issues Case Studies Complete Annual Report
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 | | The data below relates to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) and the 32,572 calls answered by BFSO case officers . The FOS is a joint venture between BFSO, Financial Industry Complaints Service Limited and Insurance Ombudsman Service.
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| Financial Ombudsman Service
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| The Financial Ombudsman Service is the first telephone contact point for consumers wishing to access a financial services dispute resolution scheme. Consumers ring the number 1300 780 808 and an Enquiry Officer refers them to the most appropriate service.
The Financial Ombudsman Service answered a total of 148,148 calls for the reporting period, a decrease of 1.0 per cent from the previous year's 149,710.
Of the calls answered by the Financial Ombudsman Service, 20.8 per cent were directed to BFSO staff. 13.3 per cent were provided with referral details to organisations other than those participating in the Financial Ombudsman Service.
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| | A total of 32,572 calls were answered by BFSO case officers during the year in review, a decrease of 10.5 per cent compared to the 36,382 calls answered in the last reporting period. 69.8 per cent of new telephone enquiries were within the BFSO's Terms of Reference and 9.3 per cent were outside Terms of Reference. 15.0 per cent of enquiries were follow up calls on open cases, and 5.9 per cent were administrative calls not related to cases. This is similar to last year's break up of calls.
This is the third year of a decline in the number of telephone calls to BFSO. This is to be expected as members improve the promotion of internal dispute resolution avenues, reducing the need for external dispute resolution services, and consumers use the BFSO website as an alternative to the telephone service. For the reporting period, there were 63,260 hits to the website with 1,402 disputes lodged online. This is a 17.1 per cent increase from last year's 1,197 online dispute lodgements.
Performance figures once again met BFSO targets for waiting times and abandonment rates:
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| | The average monthly abandonment rate was 2.1 per cent; and
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| | The average speed of answer of all calls was 18 seconds, a significant decrease from 33 seconds in the previous year.
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