Working for your financial and consumer rights

  Advice Line
Mon-Fri: 9am-4pm

On 4 July 2017, the Joint Consumer Group, of which Consumer Credit Legal Service (WA) Inc is a member, submitted its comments on the Supplementary Issues Paper of the Review of the financial system external dispute resolution framework (also known as the Ramsay Review). 

The joint submission was coordinated by the Consumer Action Law Centre in Victoria.

Image: Members of the Joint Consumer Group

You can read Consumer Action Law Centre’s media release on the joint submission here.

The Supplementary Issues Paper was released to consider the changes to the terms of reference to the Ramsay Review. Those changes were in response to the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman’s Inquiry into small business loans (the Carnell Report).

The amended terms of reference include:

  • the making of recommendations (rather than merely observations) on the establishment, merits and potential design of a compensation scheme of last resort (LRCS); and
  • consideration of the merits and issues involved in providing access to redress for past disputes.

The Joint Consumer Group submission supports the introduction of a compensation scheme of last resort, in addition to supporting access to redress for past disputes.

This paper builds on the initial joint submission on the Interim Report of the Ramsay Review which supported a single comprehensive ombudsman scheme to cover all banking, finance and insurance complaints. CCLSWA was also a party to this submission.

This comprehensive scheme would involve the merger of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) and the Credit & Investments Ombudsman (CIO), building on the success of existing schemes and ensuring that the beneficial features of these schemes, which have resulted from years of continual improvement, are not lost.

The submission also called for an increase in the amount the Ombudsman can award to $2 million, as well as an increase in the coverage of the Ombudsman scheme.

The Final Report of the Ramsay Review was released on 9 May 2017. The full report can be read here.

Image: Parties to the joint submission on the interim report of the Ramsay Review

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Skip to content