Thursday, March 29, 2012
The financial ombudsman has described as a milestone the passing of a bill that will grant his office the power to publicly identify institutions about which it receives complaints.
The amendment to the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority Bill 2011 was put forward by Fianna Fáil and accepted by the Government on Tuesday night.
Once the formal legislation is passed, the law will allow for the ombudsman’s office to detail the types and amounts of complaints made, by members of the public, about specific banks and insurance firms.
“Our main focus has always been to get institutions to change their behaviour and the best way to do that is to have the ability to identify those that are in the wrong, rather than just finding against them in complaint cases,” financial services ombudsman, Bill Prasifka said.
He said the move represented a major breakthrough, as his office had been calling for this power for some time — not just since Mr Prasifka took office in 2010, but also before when his predecessor, Joe Meade, was in situ.
In his speech to the Dáil on Tuesday night regarding the bill, Finance Minister Michael Noonan said that while the Government broadly supported the objectives of the motion, further work would be required on its detail before it could be fully passed into law.
“I accept that the naming of financial service providers, in certain circumstances, will support the work of the financial services ombudsman in effectively carrying out his functions, and for this reason I believe the Bill is consistent with current Government policy.
“Indeed, much work has taken place in developing proposals for legislation on this issue,” Mr Noonan said.
The financial services ombudsman has long since maintained that the naming of a particular institution, in complaints cases, could help to ensure that such cases were less likely to recur, than if anonymity was maintained.
The ombudsman is set to engage further with industry players and the Department of Finance in the coming weeks, before final legislation is passed.
Mr Prasifka, yesterday also welcomed the fact that the proposal has met with all-party support.