Financial Ombudsman - Strengthen regulation

THE number of complaints made to the Financial Ombudsman increased by 36% last year.

As these came from customers who felt that they were given either poor advice or service leading to poor returns on investments in 2007, we can expect an even greater increase next year.

The ombudsman had to deal with just under 6,000 complaints about banks, building societies and other financial institutions. The greatest increase dealt with investments which more than doubled to over 1,000.