What does FSOB mean in GENERAL

The Financial Services Ombudsman Bureau is an independent organisation that provides a free and impartial dispute resolution service to consumers who have been treated unfairly by financial services firms in Ireland. We are authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland to investigate complaints and provide binding decisions on them.

You can make your complaint to our office in writing, email or phone. It’s important that you provide all the relevant information and evidence needed for us to investigate your complaint. Our contact details can be found on our website here: https://www.financialombudsman.ie/en/contact-us/

We investigate disputes between consumers and financial services firms, such as banks, insurers, investment firms and loan companies. This includes disputes about products or services bought from those firms, such as loans, mortgages, investments, insurance policies or bank accounts.

We are regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland under the European Communities (Financial Services Ombudsman Scheme) Regulations 2019.

Yes – complaints must be made within six years from when you became aware of any problems with the financial service you received from a firm in Ireland. If we think more time should be allowed due to exceptional circumstances we may extend this deadline in certain special cases at our discretion.

After receiving a complaint from you we will send it directly to the firm concerned to give them an opportunity to respond or resolve it directly with you if possible first before coming back into us for review. If they don’t respond in a reasonable amount of time then we will work directly with you throughout our investigation until it is resolved one way or another through mediation or determination as appropriate based on its merits.

Every case is different so it’s hard to say exactly but generally most complaints are resolved within 6 months once all relevant information has been received by us from both sides and investigations carried out where necessary depending on how complex it might be but we strive for efficient resolution wherever possible.

Yes – once our decision has been issued both parties must comply with whatever outcome has been determined taking into account what is fair and reasonable for all without exception.