The UK Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has published its plans and budget for 2025/2026, together with an accompanying press release. The FOS notes that there has been more uncertainty than usual over the last year, and this will continue into the next year. This is, in particular, due to the ongoing legal and regulatory developments in relation to motor finance commission complaints and the introduction of a fee for certain professional representatives, which the FOS expects will lead to a volume reduction as it will receive fewer cases without merit. In addition, the FOS expect disputed transactions cases in relation to fraud and scams to remain high, and an increase in respect of volumes of complaints in relation to authorised push payments. Despite the high level of complaints being referred, the FOS is not raising the case fees for businesses, and will be maintaining the reduced compulsory and voluntary jurisdiction levies. The FOS also confirms that it will carry out work over the course of the coming year to understand the impact of the introduction of regulatory rules in relation to deferred payment credit (previously referred to as buy now, pay later), which the FCA has said that it will consult on in the upcoming 2025/2026 period.
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