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Dear Mr Keirman
Freedom of Information: Right to know request
Thank you for your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act), for the following information.
“..able to supply an up to date list of relevant departments of all 28 firms who specifically deal with Financial Hardship claims under the FSA Waiver on Bank Charges”.
I apologise for the delay in responding to your request.
In your request you refer to a waiver requirement "...that firms have specific procedures and contact details for consumers to take complaints to where financial difficulty is involved." We assume you are referring to the following parts of the waiver:
- Complainants in financial difficulty:
- (19) from the date of this direction, the firm must ensure a fair, consistent and intelligent filtering of new complaints in order to identify relevant charges complaints from complainants who claim to be in financial difficulty and then assess whether that claim is justified. For the purposes of this direction, a complainant is considered to be in financial difficulty when his income is insufficient to cover reasonable living expenses and meet financial commitments as they become due;
This requirement means that firms must have processes in place within the departments that deal with relevant charges complaints, to ensure that complainants who class themselves as in financial difficulties are identified and dealt with appropriately. This may involve verifying that a claim of financial difficulties is justified, before passing the case to specialist staff (who may be based in a different location).
- “Annex 2 – Dealing with complainants in financial difficulty
5. If it becomes clear to the firm that the complainant needs specialist assistance, the complainant will be referred promptly to a specialist team that deals with customers in financial difficulties, if one exists. The firm will give a phone number on all communications that will put the customer in contact with a named person or a team dedicated to dealing with cases of financial difficulty.”
- Complainants in financial difficulty:
This guidance sets out that firms should provide customers assessed as being in financial difficulty with a contact number for the person/team dealing with financial difficulties cases. There is no specific requirement for firms to provide customers more generally with a contact number for its financial difficulties team. From our monitoring experience the departments that deal with relevant charges complaints are normally part of the firms' centralised complaint handling functions, the contact details for which are normally available on firms' websites and/or by telephoning or visiting a branch. Information is also normally available about how customers should contact a firm to discuss financial difficulties when this is not specifically being raised in connection with a relevant charges complaint.
Your request has now been considered. I can confirm that following a search of our paper and electronic records the FSA does not hold a list of addresses and contact numbers in the format you have requested.
From our monitoring work we do hold some information about the departments at some firms that deal with relevant charges complaints put on hold as a result of the waiver, and the departments (where separate) that deal with cases involving financial difficulty. However, we are not able to disclose information we have received on the contact details for firms to you because this is information which the FSA has received for the purpose of carrying out its regulatory function under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 ("FSMA"), and so the following exemption applies:
- Section 44 (Prohibitions on disclosure)
Section 44 provides that information is absolutely exempt if its disclosure (otherwise than under the Act) is prohibited by or under any enactment. Section 348 of the FSMA restricts the FSA from disclosing "confidential information" it has received except in certain limited circumstances (none of which apply here).
Confidential information for these purposes is defined as information which relates to the business or other affairs of any person and which was received by the FSA for the purposes of or in the discharge of its functions under FSMA and which is not in the public domain.
Any correspondence and/or documents from the firms to the FSA has been received for the purpose of carrying out our supervision of those firms, so falls within Section 348. Consequently the FSA is prohibited from disclosing to you any information which we received while performing our regulatory duties and which is not in the public domain. Disclosure of any such confidential information is in breach of s.348 of FSMA and is a criminal offence.
If you have any queries or are unhappy with the decisions made in relation to your request please contact me. If I am not able to resolve your concerns I will advise you of the process for an internal review. If you wish to exercise your right to an internal review you should contact us within three months of the date of this letter.
If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you also have a right of appeal to the Information Commissioner at:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Telephone: 01625 545 700
Website: www.ico.gov.uk
Yours sincerely
Sandra Collins| Information Access| IS | Knowledge Management Department |
Financial Services Authority
25 The North Colonnade
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5HS
Tel: 020 7066 7120
www.fsa.gov.uk
