Media Releases

In its annual report released today, the IFSO Scheme reveals it received 4,120 complaint enquiries in the past year. It is the highest number of complaint enquiries the IFSO Scheme has ever received in one year.

Vehicle insurance is the number one thing people complain about to the Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman Scheme (IFSO Scheme), making up 23% (76) of all complaints the Scheme investigated in the past year.

This Money Month, Karen Stevens, Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman (IFSO), is recommending that people who are struggling to repay debt “pause, and get sorted” by contacting a free financial mentoring service.

The Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman Scheme (IFSO Scheme) has made changes to its Terms of Reference (TOR) and Constitution, effective from 1 September 2023.

Enquiries to the Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman Scheme (IFSO Scheme) have broken records for three months in a row, due to the knock-on effects of the Auckland floods and Cyclone Gabrielle.

Until now, there has been limited formal training available in complaint response for providers of insurance and financial services. That’s set to change with a new course launched by Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa Massey University’s Financial Education and Research (Fin-Ed) Centre, with content from the Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman Scheme (IFSO Scheme).

With unprecedented flooding in Auckland over the last weekend, and severe weather warnings for the upper North Island early this week, the Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman (IFSO), Karen Stevens, says now’s the time to get the next steps right.

Despite a year of more COVID-19 disruption, increased service delivery legislation and big weather events, Karen Stevens, Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman (IFSO), says there was an overall drop in the number of complaints accepted by the IFSO Scheme. There were 2,847 complaint enquiries from consumers who were dissatisfied with their financial service providers, down from last year’s total of 3,626. Similarly, only 10% of those resulted in 285 complaints, with more than $1.2m paid to consumers.

In its 2020 - 2021 Annual Report, the IFSO Scheme reports most complaints were about insurance, with a 25% increase across Fire and General, Life and Health.

After the Canterbury floods, IFSO Scheme Karen Stevens cautions farmers to check what business interruption (BI) cover they have.