The Financial Services Ombudsman launched his annual report for 2007 today.
In the report, Joe Meade details a number of significant decisions over the last 12 months, including the awarding of €200,000 to a former professional rugby player arising out of a complaint brought to the Ombudsman's office.
The report also details how an unemployed single mother was awarded €10,000 after an unsuitable investment was sold to her by a financial services company.
The case of a sales team is also detailed after an insurance company misled its own team on the selling of insurance investment funds .
Ombudsman Joe Meade also drew attention to the withdrawal of large sums of cash from ATM machines and he says a review is needed to prevent fraud.
During 2007 the Financial Services Ombudsman dealt with a 15% rise in complaints. More than 4,374 cases were handled by his office during the year.
59% of all complaints in 2007 were resolved in favour of the claimant.
During 2007 the Ombudsman also took a number of court actions to ensure that a small number of brokers paid a statutory levy of €125 to meet the cost of running the Ombudsman's Office which was €3.6m in 2007.
