Financial Ombudsman Service of the Russian Federation
The Financial Ombudsman Service of the Russian Federation was created in 2018 to mediate consumer rights complaints and out-of-court disputes between consumers of financial services and financial organizations. It was created under federal law on June 4, 2018 to provide legal status of the Financial Ombudsman Service, the procedure for its activities, specific rules and regulation procedures as well as consideration of citizens’ complaints scheme and other legal relations. It was designed to help resolve disputes between consumers and financial institutions providing clients and considers claims against credit institutions, insurance organizations, microfinance institutions, credit consumer cooperatives, pawnshops and non-state pension funds on a mandatory and voluntary basis
The Financial Ombudsman Service structure
The Financial Ombudsman Service of the Russian Federation: consists of- Chief Financial Ombudsman and ombudsmen for financial services;
- the Financial Ombudsman Service Council;
- the Ombudsman for financial services consumers support Service;
- the Financial Ombudsman Service Expert Council.
Main activities
The Financial Ombudsman Service of the Russian Federation performs out-of-court resolution of disputes between consumers of financial services and financial institutions that have provided them with a service:. In accordance with the applicable law and regulations, the interaction with the Financial Ombudsman is currently mandatory for- insurance organizations that carry out activities in Compulsory Motor Liability insurance, Voluntary Third Party Liability insurance and insurance of land vehicles – since June 1, 2019;
- all insurance organizations – since November 28, 2019;
- all microfinance institutions – since January 1, 2020;
- credit institutions, pawnshops, credit consumer cooperatives and non-state pension funds – since January 1, 2021.