The UK Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) last week published data for the period between April and June 2020 (Q1 2020/21) regarding new complaints it received from financial service provider’s customers. Surprisingly, even with extreme market volatility and trader activity in the markets in the spring month, the dispute resolution body only saw 58 new cases submitted regarding contracts for difference (CFDs) trading. With that, the FOS reported that fewer than 10 cases were referred to the Ombudsman for further investigation.
Overall for the Q1 2020/21 period the Ombudsman received 110,695 new inquiries and 57,509 new complaints between April and June 2020. On average, FOS upheld 32% of the complaints it resolved. Regarding spread betting, there were 25 inquiries in Q1 2020/21 and 21 new cases. As with CFDs, there were fewer than 10 cases referred to the Ombudsman.
With many new retail traders having entered the market in the last 6 months, we expect the number of inquiries and/or complaints to grow at the FOS service, as traders unwind their positions and expect to book profits. It remains to be seen what specific financial products attracted the most interest from traders as Covid-19 made an extreme impact on markets in the spring months of 2020.