The Financial Ombudsman Service has announced that its proactive settlement scheme will continue. The FOS explains that over the last couple of years, it has trialed a new way to help financial businesses and their customers to resolve complaints more quickly. By using "proactive settlement," financial businesses can make an offer to resolve a complaint before the FOS carries out a full investigation. Following the trial and reviewing feedback from participants, the FOS identified a few ways to improve the process.

From June 24, 2024, the FOS will introduce the following changes:

• For the proactive settlement process to apply, firms must make an offer within 14 days from when the case moves to investigation.
• When the FOS receives an offer, it will assess whether it meets the scheme criteria. If not, the FOS will let the business know why and that it will be investigating the case in the normal way.
• When the FOS communicates the offer to the customer, it will offer them guidance to help them decide whether to accept it.

The FOS has also changed how it works internally to embed the process permanently and ensure it can continue to send offers on to customers promptly. The FOS also updated its webpage on how it handles complaints and its guide on the proactive settlement scheme criteria.

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