Ombudsman payouts rise

THE Investment Ombudsman, Richard Youard, ordered compensation of pounds 175,000 last year - considerably more than the year before because of a couple of large claims, writes Vivien Goldsmith.

The biggest payment, pounds 99,000, was against a bank that had put a customer in touch with a business investment that failed.

The bank, which was not identified by the Ombudsman, argued that it had operated merely as an introducer and this did not amount to investment business. But Mr Youard said that, although the client who invested the proceeds from selling his own business had done his own investigation into the unquoted company, the bank had not provided a fair picture. The bank paid the full sum lost plus interest.

This award is not typical of the cases heard by the Ombudsman. The average claim is pounds 6,127, and the average payout just over pounds 2,000. Mr Youard said: 'People always have an exaggerated idea of what they have lost. Some people claim for their own time at professional rates and that we do not allow.'