Following the trends of past years in 2005 the Ombudsman has kept its policy of avoiding, in as much as possible, the recourse to written complaints. Last year 55 files were processed.
It is worth noting that 75% of all complaints filed dealt with requests for clarification or information on matters which the claimant wrongly believed had been dealt with negligently by the firm or matters outside the remit of the Ombudsman. The latter section represented the biggest increase, accounting for 47% of all complaints. Also important is the fact that the majority of them, specifically 73%, were enquiries made by the firms on how to deal with clients in certain situations. This comes to show the relation of trust established between the Ombudsman and the different market participants, as it is not only investors that complain but also the firms demand the Ombudsman’s opinion when their point of view and that of their clients differ. In this respect it is worth mentioning the enquiry made by a law firm asking the Ombudsman about the possibility of his carrying out arbitrary functions.
Also important in the Report presented by Carlos Fernández is the percentage of files which ended with a Final Report, which grew from 10% in 2004 to 15% last year. This represents an increase compared to the 4% and 7% posted over the last two years, but still far from the 64% recorded in 2001. Mutual agreements account for 10% of all complaints posed during 2005.
Of all complaints filed with the Ombudsman in 2005, only in 14 instances the matters involved posed real conflict, they needing clarification from all parts involved in the transaction, compared to 9 in 2004. In 8 instances a Final Report was needed, of which 6 were favourable to the claimant and 2 unfavourable.
As regards the firms against which the complaint is directed, those involving Saving Banks went from representing 22% of all in 2004 to 36% in 2005. In contrast, the complaints directed against members of the stock exchange decreased, from 22% in 2004 to 14% in 2005 as did those against Banks, which shrank from 56% in 2004 to 50% in 2005.