FOS should suspend complaints naming plans, ABI

Plans by the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) to publicly name financial services firms generating high numbers of consumer complaints have been challenged by industry groups. The FOS board decided in July last year that it wanted to publish company-specific complaints records as part of its efforts to boost transparency and in response to the outcome of a review by Lord Hunt. In September 2008, the FOS issued a paper proposing how it intends to publish such information but the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and the British Bankers Association have appealed to the FOS to suspend its plans altogether.