New statistics, released as part of the FOS Winter 2013 Circular, also showed that a majority of the disputes were about credit products (47 per cent).
Twenty-eight per cent related to general insurance; 7.3 per cent related to payment systems; and 6.4 per cent related to deposit-taking institutions.
Just under 5 per cent of the disputes related to investments.
As with the previous quarter, the systemic issues identified by FOS related to financial hardship, errors in credit listings and general insurance policy interpretations.
Chief ombudsman Shane Tregillis said he had seen a “welcome stabilisation of dispute numbers” in 2013.
FOS will undergo an independent review later this year, which Mr Tregillis said will give stakeholders “further opportunity to comment on our service”.
Independent reviews of external dispute resolution schemes are mandated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
The Winter Circular also revealed that FOS has undertaken a performance review project in order to make its dispute handling process “easier and more efficient”.
Improvements include a ‘streamlining’ of the way the ombudsman obtains and exchanges information; an increase in direct telephone contact with consumers and financial service providers; moves to become less reliant on paper-based processes; and the use of ‘issues letters’ together with telephone calls to clarify issues early on in the resolution process.
FOS has also put together a ‘Significant Event Response Plan’ to deal with events that cause a spike in disputes.
Natural disasters like floods are not the only focus of the plan, however. According to FOS,they could also include “a financial institution entering administration, liquidation or receivership; a significant systemic issue; a large adverse event in the financial markets; a major IT failure of a financial institution; or any other event in the financial services sector that has the potential to affect a significant number of consumers.”
