On 3 April 2025, the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) published its 2025/26 Plans and Budget.

Key points from the publication include:

• The FOS aims to bring down the number of non-car commission cases waiting for a resolution, to improve the time it takes for customers to receive an answer on their case and their experience of the FOS.

• It also plans to continue to work motor finance commission (MFC) cases as far as it can and within the parameters of the ongoing legal and regulatory action outside its control.

• The FOS is continuing to progress its plans to transform and improve its service for customers, with a focus on reducing the time it takes to provide customers with answers on cases by further increasing its capacity to resolve cases productively; building flexibility into its workforce to respond to reasonable changes in demand; and sharing greater insight with industry.

• At the start of 2025/26, the FOS will implement changes to its funding model so that professional representatives are charged a case fee for using the service.

A further focus for the year will be to engage with the Economic Secretary to the Treasury’s review of the FOS and the feedback received as part of the FOS’s joint Call for Input with the FCA on whether and how it should play a role in resolving mass redress events in future.