Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS)

The Financial Ombudsman Service is the UK's statutory scheme for resolving disputes between consumers and financial firms, including FCA-authorised brokers. It is free to the complainant and sits after the firm's own complaints process: you complain to the broker first, and if its final response is unsatisfactory — or if eight weeks pass without one — the case can be referred onwards, generally within six months of that response. Its decisions bind the firm and only the firm, up to a monetary award limit that is index-linked and republished annually, so check the current figure rather than one quoted in an old article. What it is not is a rescue fund for a failed broker: an ombudsman rules on whether a firm treated a client fairly, whereas the clients of an insolvent firm are dealt with by the compensation scheme instead. Eligibility is also narrower than it first appears — the scheme is aimed at consumers and smaller businesses, so a client who has been categorised as professional may fall outside it entirely.