The educational value of financial ombudsmen, which should be promoted

Every ruling by the Banking and Financial Ombudsman, the Financial Disputes Ombudsman and the Insurance Ombudsman serves a purpose that goes beyond the resolution of individual disputes between customers and intermediaries. Through their work, the arbitrators help to promote the protection of citizens by providing a ‘gentle nudge’ that should encourage operators to act fairly and comply with the rules in their dealings with customers. This moral suasion should encourage banks, insurance companies and other financial intermediaries to remedy any shortcomings on their part, whilst also taking into account the findings raised by the arbitrator regarding their competitors, particularly where there are a series of similar decisions. The work of arbitrators also plays a key role in supporting the supervisory activities of the authority to which they are linked and, last but not least, serves as a powerful tool for financial education that should be given greater prominence.

Consulting the decisions published on the arbitrators’ websites helps us to understand how specific and recurring situations relating to personal finance – which affect our daily lives – are addressed and resolved: from mortgages to current accounts, and from insurance cover to investment services. On the arbitrators’ websites, it is now possible to access thousands of decisions using simple search engines. Simply enter a few keywords to find cases similar to the one you are interested in and see how the panels have resolved the matter. This feature turns the arbitrators’ websites into a veritable ‘digital library’ brimming with practical case studies, useful not only for those involved in ongoing disputes but also for anyone wishing to explore current financial issues or prepare to make more informed investment decisions.

From a financial education perspective, the work of arbitrators not only enables people to learn from situations others have already experienced, to avoid mistakes and to better understand their rights, but also helps them to recognise unfair practices or risky behaviour that should be assessed before signing a contract or making an investment. The decisions of arbitrators, together with their guidance, can therefore serve as a point of reference for training and information initiatives aimed at the public. They could also be included amongst the teaching resources for financial education once it is fully integrated into schools, offering young people a practical tool to navigate the world of banking and financial services, with a hands-on approach based on real-life cases. The bodies responsible for resolving financial disputes should therefore be brought more to the public’s attention, and a public service announcement-style campaign could be useful in raising awareness of the activities and socio-economic functions of these three bodies. Italians would stand to benefit greatly from this.