A Comparative Study Of The Legal System Of Financial Ombudsman

It is important to protect financial consumers since confidence of financial market is the key to booming financial industry. Financial Service Ombudsman (FSO), an independent and impartial Alternative Dispute Resolution, is involved in consumer’s complaint to financial institution such as bank, insurance company etc. Nowadays there are more than31countries provide the FSO service, including Taiwan of China which introduced in2011. To keep up with it, we have compared the theory and practice of the FSO among different countries i.e. the UK, the USA, France, Canada, India, Singapore and Taiwan, China.The UK Financial Ombudsman Service is the greatest system which contains conciliation, mediation, arbitration, appeal and review. French Financial Ombudsman (FFO) focuses on mediation, emphasizing voluntary of the parties and confidentiality of the program. The FSO of the USA helps consumers negotiate with financial institutions. The OBSI of Canada is only responsible for the mediation and adjudication of the case which is accepted and heard by FCAC. The India Banking Ombudsman Scheme is a part of the central bank, and it supports the compensation for moral damage. Both Singapore’s FIDReC and Taiwan’s FOI are orientated from the UK Financial Ombudsman.Although China has carried out reform in the field of consumer financial protection and achieved remarkable effects, it is still remained something to learn from the FSO and even necessary to form a FSO in the mainland of China. In addition to the principle of dispute resolution, design of the system, and neutrality of adjudication, we shall pay attention to the financial consumer protection of legal persons, especially micro-enterprises. Ultimately, the thesis puts forward specific ideas and legal choices of the FSO in China including the Process and the Effective of Adjudication. We suggest that Financial Regulatory Authorities of China shall keep on reform i.e. build up the Financial Dispute Call Center to accept applications, the People’s Bank set up a Financial Ombudsman Commission in charge of review.