Liam Coleman has become permanent chair of the Financial Ombudsman Service on 10 October, following a year in the role on an interim basis. The Financial Conduct Authority’s board made the appointment with Treasury approval. His term is three years.
The appointment gives continuity at the head of the body that settles disputes between financial businesses and their customers. The service handles complaints across areas including banking, insurance, loans, mortgages, pensions and investments. It is intended to provide a route for eligible customers who have been unable to resolve a complaint directly with a firm.
A role in the redress system
The ombudsman is distinct from a firm’s own complaints process and from the courts. It considers disputes brought by customers and makes decisions within its remit. Its board is responsible for ensuring that the service is properly resourced and can carry out its work effectively and independently. The appointment therefore concerns both leadership and an institution whose decisions can matter to consumers and financial firms.
The service’s remit has developed over time. It was extended in 2019 to include complaints from larger small and medium-sized businesses and complaints about claims management companies. Its remit is not unlimited: whether a particular complaint can be considered depends on the rules applying to the case, including who is bringing it and what the complaint concerns.
That breadth means the organisation deals with disputes arising from very different products and circumstances. A banking complaint, an insurance claim dispute and a disagreement about a pension or investment are not interchangeable. The ombudsman’s role is to consider individual complaints under its procedures, rather than to act as a general regulator of every business practice or to replace the courts.
Reform remains on the agenda
The FCA, the ombudsman service and the government are working on changes to the UK’s redress system and on how the ombudsman operates within it. The stated aim is a process that is consistent, predictable and fair for consumers and firms. The chair’s appointment does not itself announce a new reform or settle what changes will be made; it places Coleman in the permanent leadership role while that wider work continues.
Predictability matters to both sides of a dispute. Consumers need a route to have unresolved concerns considered, while firms need to understand how complaints are handled and what standards apply. Consistency does not mean every case will have the same outcome: the circumstances and evidence in each complaint can differ. Nor does the appointment change the service’s jurisdiction or guarantee a particular result for people with an existing case.
The ombudsman was created to resolve complaints between financial businesses and their customers. Its work sits alongside the FCA’s wider regulatory responsibilities, rather than replacing them. The FCA appoints the chair under the statutory framework, with Treasury approval, while the service’s board has responsibility for enabling it to do its work independently.
Experience and continuity
Coleman’s previous experience spans financial services and public-sector organisations. He has held roles at the FCA, an NHS foundation trust, Nationwide Building Society, Royal Bank of Scotland and Co-operative Bank, and is also group chair of London & Quadrant Housing Trust. The regulator said his experience would be relevant to work on a fair and effective redress system.
During his interim year, Coleman led the board before receiving the permanent appointment. The three-year term now gives him a defined period in which to continue that work. The immediate announcement is about governance, not a change to the way an individual complaint is decided. The appointment alone does not alter the status or expected outcome of any existing case.
The central test for the organisation will be how it balances accessible complaint resolution with decisions that businesses and consumers can understand. The reform programme signals that the system’s operation is under review, but details and outcomes should not be presumed from the chair’s appointment. For now, the confirmed change is that Coleman moves from interim to permanent chair, with Treasury approval and a three-year mandate.
