Ombud battles to finalise property syndication complaints as it releases annual report
Publish date: 13 December 2019
Issue Number: 102
Diary: CompliNEWS
Category: FAIS Ombud
The Office of the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services (FAIS) Ombud is encountering significant difficulties in finalising the backlog of property syndication complaints it has received, according to a report appearing on Moneyweb.
The backlog relates to complaints lodged several years ago about schemes promoted and marketed by companies such as Sharemax and Highveld Syndication.
On releasing its annual report on Friday, assistant Ombud Thobile Masina said that one of the challenges relates to inconsistencies in the decisions it had received from the Financial Services Tribunal (FST), previously called the Financial Services Board (FSB) appeal board.
The backlog of property syndication complaints was reduced to 1 147 at the end of March 2019, from the about 2 000 complaints that were shelved in 2013.
The Ombud’s annual report for the 2018/2019 financial year reveals that new complaints received by the office decreased by 8.7% to 9 323 complaints from the 10 211 new complaints received in the previous year.
The office resolved 9 954 complaints in the year, 6.8% more than the total amount of complaints received during the financial year, with orders to the value of R66.6 million in favour of complainants in settled or determined cases.
