ASIC has approved the new Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).

FOS will represent the merger of the three biggest
complaints schemes operating in the financial services industry – the
Financial Industry Complaints Service (FICS), the Banking and Financial
Ombudsman Service (BFSO) and the Insurance Ombudsman Service (IOS).

Together, FICS, BFSO and IOS deal with most consumer
complaints about financial services and cover the vast majority of
retail financial services providers, including banks, credit unions, life and general
insurance companies, stockbrokers, investment managers and financial
planners. Between them, the schemes dealt with about 10,000 consumer
disputes in the last reporting period and over 100,000 telephone
enquiries.

FOS will be operational from 1 July 2008. In the
first instance, FOS will continue to operate the rules and procedures
of the three existing schemes, with a view to operating under a single
set of rules no later than 1 January 2010.

Consumers and investors who want to refer a complaint to FOS can contact the scheme by calling  1300 780 808  .