Ombudsman braces for complaints surge

The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) is predicting a 44% rise in the number of complaints from consumers in the next financial year 2009/2010. In planning its budget for the next year, the FOS said it will settle a record 165,000 complaints about financial services firms compared with the 115,000 complaints it expects to resolve before the end of the current financial year in March 2009.