Thursday, 10 January 2013 10:37
Ombudsman proposes to increase compulsory levy to £23m
The Financial Ombudsman Service is consulting on a 30 per cent levy increase from £17.7m to £23m.
The levy is calculated in line with the estimated proportion of complaints from different financial sectors and the Ombudsman said it was mainly due to PPI complaints.
It is currently receiving over 5,000 new PPI complaints each week and expects to receive 250,000 by the end of the 2012-13 year, higher than the expected 165,000 cases.
The Ombudsman has frozen the levy for the past four years but said an increase was needed to maintain the balance between the case fee and the levy.
It said: "This means that most businesses may pay a slightly higher levy in 2013/14. However, the amount of any increase will vary for individual businesses- depending on which fee block they are in and the tariff rates the FSA sets for each fee block."
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It is also proposing increasing the number of free cases from three to 25 and raising to individual case fee from £500 to £550. It is hoped this will reduce the number of firms paying case fees to around one per cent.
There would also be a new 'group account' which will apply to four major banking groups. The Ombudsman said these firms make up 60 per cent of their caseload and as such will pay a quarterly fee on the basis of an overall proportion of expected work. Fees, which are determined in advance, would be reviewed at the end of the year if actual figures were markedly different.
It said: "This new arrangement would ensure that the banking groups that account for around 60 per cent of our costs contribute a similar proportion of our income. The arrangement would also help to ensure that we received our income in a more timely and stable way- so that we could adjust our resources to respond to volatility in demand."
Any responses to the proposals should be sent to the Ombudsman by 18 February.
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The levy is calculated in line with the estimated proportion of complaints from different financial sectors and the Ombudsman said it was mainly due to PPI complaints.
It is currently receiving over 5,000 new PPI complaints each week and expects to receive 250,000 by the end of the 2012-13 year, higher than the expected 165,000 cases.
The Ombudsman has frozen the levy for the past four years but said an increase was needed to maintain the balance between the case fee and the levy.
It said: "This means that most businesses may pay a slightly higher levy in 2013/14. However, the amount of any increase will vary for individual businesses- depending on which fee block they are in and the tariff rates the FSA sets for each fee block."
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It is also proposing increasing the number of free cases from three to 25 and raising to individual case fee from £500 to £550. It is hoped this will reduce the number of firms paying case fees to around one per cent.
There would also be a new 'group account' which will apply to four major banking groups. The Ombudsman said these firms make up 60 per cent of their caseload and as such will pay a quarterly fee on the basis of an overall proportion of expected work. Fees, which are determined in advance, would be reviewed at the end of the year if actual figures were markedly different.
It said: "This new arrangement would ensure that the banking groups that account for around 60 per cent of our costs contribute a similar proportion of our income. The arrangement would also help to ensure that we received our income in a more timely and stable way- so that we could adjust our resources to respond to volatility in demand."
Any responses to the proposals should be sent to the Ombudsman by 18 February.
• Want to receive a free weekly summary of the best news stories from our website? Just go to home page and submit your name and email address. If you are already logged in you will need to log out to see the e-newsletter sign up. You can then log in again.
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