Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Financial Ombudsman Service definition

What does Financial Ombudsman Service mean? The Financial ombudsman Service (FOS) is the UK’s independent statutory alternative dispute resolution service for complaints by consumers and certain small organisations against FCA- and PRA-regulated financial services firms. It provides a free, informal forum to resolve banking, insurance, investment and pensions disputes without court proceedings. FOS operates the compulsory ombudsman scheme created by the financial services and markets act 2000, with scope, eligibility and procedure set mainly in the FCA Handbook (DISP) and supplemented by the Payment Services and Electronic Money Regulations and consumer credit legislation. Complaints are usually referred after a firm’s internal process has concluded, within...

Financial Ombudsman Service voluntary jurisdiction (UK): scope, eligibility, covered activities, territorial limits and joining obligations under FSMA 2000 and DISP

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Practice notes

The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has two areas of Jurisdiction:

the compulsory jurisdiction (that is, the part of the FOS to which firms authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), payment service providers, electronic money issuers and certain other entities are obliged to submit under binding regulatory requirements), and
the voluntary jurisdiction (that is, the part of the FOS for businesses not within the compulsory remit but wishing to sign up to the FOS’s scheme and participate contractually)

Both “compulsory jurisdiction” and “voluntary jurisdiction” are described in full in the Glossary to the FCA Handbook. The voluntary jurisdiction of the Financial Ombudsman Service is addressed in Chapters 2 and 4 of the FCA’s Dispute Resolution: Complaints Sourcebook (DISP), and is provided for by section 227 and Schedule 17, Part IV of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA 2000). Under FSMA 2000, s 227(1)–(2), the FOS may examine a complaint that concerns an act or omission by a firm (the respondent) in carrying on an activity to which the voluntary jurisdiction rules apply if the following conditions are satisfied:

the complainant is eligible and wishes to have the complaint dealt with under the financial Ombudsman...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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