OMBUD COUNCIL ANNUAL REPORT 2024/25

PART A: GENERAL INFORMATION

4. REPORT OF THE CHIEF OMBUD

Ms. Leanne Jackson Chief Ombud

I am pleased to present the Ombud Council’s annual report for the 2024/25 financial year. This report marks the close of the establishment and operationalisation phases of the Ombud Council’s journey, since starting limited operations in 2021 and becoming formally listed as a public entity under the PFMA in 2023. The report records the Council’s progress as at the end of the two-year period covered by our inaugural Strategic Plan, and our performance against the targets in only our second formal Annual Performance Plan (APP). The Strategic Plan and APP outlined two broad programmes of work: Our externally focused Regulation and Oversight programme, addressing the delivery of our statutory mandate and our mission to ensure that a known, trusted, and easily accessible ombud system exists for all in the financial sector; and our internally focused Administration programme, aimed at building our capacity and operationalising our functions. In the previous financial year 2023/24 both of these programmes dealt with significant transitions: The Regulation and Oversight programme was dominated by working towards the finalisation of the National Treasury policy paper “A simpler, stronger, financial sector ombud system” (February 2024), and the Ombud Council granting recognition to the new, overarching National Financial Ombud (NFO) effective 1 March 2024, as a vital step in the transition toward the broader reforms confirmed by the National Treasury policy paper. Internally, the Administration programme was preparing the Ombud Council to transition

from being operationally supported by the FSCA through a shared services arrangement, to becoming operationally independent from 2024/25 onward. By contrast, in financial year 2024/25 the Ombud Council has been able to operate in a relatively more stable environment, both operationally and from the perspective of the broader ombud system. A MORE STREAMLINED, ACCESSIBLE OMBUD SYSTEM The Council was gratified to join the NFO Scheme, which is an amalgamation of the former industry ombud schemes for the banking, credit, long-term and short-term insurance sectors, in celebrating its first anniversary in March 2025, since being granted recognition by the Ombud Council. Since recognising the scheme in March 2024, the Council has supported the NFO through its first year of operations, exercised oversight over its complaint handling functions, and ensured the scheme conducted a one-year review of the effectiveness of its governing rules. Financial customers who have been unfairly treated by banks, life and non-life insurers, and credit providers are enjoying the benefits of a significantly simpler, more streamlined, and more easily accessible process for having their complaints heard. The smooth implementation of the amalgamated scheme, for which its leadership is to be congratulated, delivers on the Ombud Council’s statutory mandate and strongly advances the National Treasury’s policy objective of a “Simpler, Stronger, Financial Sector Ombud System.”

6

OMBUD COUNCIL ANNUAL REPORT 2024/25