VolvoMan #TheResistance

UK GOVERNMENT JUST QUIETLY STRIPPED YOUR RIGHT TO COMPLAIN ABOUT YOUR BANK On 16 March 2026, the government announced the biggest overhaul of the Financial Ombudsman Service @financialombuds in its 25-year history. It was packaged in the language of modernisation, efficiency and clarity. What it actually does to ordinary people is a different story entirely. Right now, the FOS decides your complaint based on what is fair and reasonable in all the circumstances. That means it considers not just whether a firm followed @TheFCA rules, but also good industry practice, codes of conduct, and broader fairness standards. A firm that ticked every regulatory box but still treated you badly could still lose at the FOS. That is the whole point of the service. It exists to catch what the rulebook misses. Under the new system, if a firm shows it followed FCA rules, the FOS must find in its favour. The wider fairness test disappears. Regulatory compliance becomes a shield against accountability, regardless of what actually happened to you. @MartinSLewis @MoneySavingExp.com called this a protection gap and said it needs to be loudly and vocally opposed. A consumer could be treated in a way every reasonable person would call manifestly unfair, and the ombudsman would be powerless to help. The FCA and FOS had published no data on how many people would lose out as a result before the announcement was made. Then there is the time limit. A hard 10-year backstop is being introduced on all complaints. That sounds administrative until you understand how financial misconduct actually works. Pension mis-selling. Mortgage mis-selling. Payment protection insurance. These were built on years of quiet institutional wrongdoing before consumers even knew they had a case. A 10-year limit does not protect consumers from that. It protects the firms that buried it. Consumer groups have been blunt. If a firm can keep misconduct hidden for long enough, the ombudsman door shuts permanently. Victims of long-running mis-selling are being told that timing now matters more than truth. The government calls this returning the FOS to its original role. What it means in practice is a complaints body that is better for banks, better for lenders, and considerably worse for anyone who needs to challenge them. Sources: MoneySavingExpert / Martin Lewis, GOV_UK official announcement