Ombud Council AR 2026

PART A: GENERAL INFORMATION

6. Strategic Overview T he Ombud Council became listed as a public entity for purposes of the PFMA at the start of the 2023/24 financial year, and its first formal Strategic Plan therefore covered a two-year period, 2023/24 and 2024/25, coinciding with the remainder of the term of the sixth administration. The Council’s first full five-year Strategic Plan for the period 2025 to 2030 was submitted to Parliament in April 2025. This Annual Report reports progress against the first year of that five-year Strategic Plan.

The Strategic Plan has a three-pronged focus, aimed at ensuring effective and well-governed operations to achieve the Council’s mandate, prioritising our statutory responsibility to promote awareness of the ombud system, and proactively supporting the ongoing reform and

strengthening of the ombud system. The strategic priorities are listed below.

Table 1: Strategic Priorities of the Ombud Council

Maintain a well-governed and effective Ombud Council that delivers on its mandate, aligned to financial ombud system reforms.

Leverage the broader financial sector education framework to promote awareness of the ombud system and enable financial customers to understand and assert their rights to fair treatment and redress.

Strategic Priorities

Leverage the legislative toolkit to coordinate the streamlining, reform, and future direction of the financial ombud system.

Ombud Council 2025/26 Annual Report

10