Financial clients ‘struggle to assert rights’

Customers with complaints against banks and other financial institutions face an uphill battle to assert their rights, a new report says.

Flac, the Free Legal Aid Centres, says neither the Government, the Central Bank nor the Financial Services Ombudsman do enough to protect financial services consumers or to provide redress when something goes wrong.

It criticises the Government for failing to place the Consumer Protection Code on a statutory footing and for persisting in excluding hire purchase agreements and credit unions from its remit.