Welcome to Financial Services

Your rights

The UK has a highly sophisticated financial services industry. It's no wonder that we often take a defensive attitude towards the industry, fearing that those in the know are trying to pull a fast one, charge us too much or sell us something we don't need.

And there's good reason for our scepticism. Over the years there have been several financial scandals where innocent victims have had to fight to get their hard-earned money back. Fortunately, we have strong consumer laws to protect us and somewhere to go with our complaints.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is the industry watchdog. The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) is just one of the ombudsmen that provide a free, independent complaints service which will rule on consumers' grievances and award compensation if they are upheld. Meanwhile the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) oversees the operation of certain consumer laws and takes on super-complaints and the Competition Commission works to ensure businesses aren't in cahoots to the disadvantage of consumers.

There's also the Financial Services Compensations Scheme which provides some protection for savings and investments if an authorised firm fails.

Scams and fraud

It's one thing if you have lost out through the actions of a legitimate operation, but it's a different matter when you're the victim of a scam. In fact, fraud in the financial services industry costs the country £14 billion a year. Our financial services site will keep you up to date with the news and latest advice to try and prevent you from falling victim to fraud.