Sir, – Contrary to the impression given in your Editorial (“Naming and shaming banks”, August 22nd), Insurance Ireland (formerly Irish Insurance Federation) fully supports a move allowing the Financial Services Ombudsman (FSO) to name insurers against whom customer complaints have been upheld.
Our concern, which we have communicated constructively to the FSO, is that any new procedure should not give a false picture of the complaint-handling record of financial services firms. By this I mean that the number of complaints upheld should be understood in proportion to the number of customers a particular insurance firm has. The FSO has acknowledged both that our concern is valid and that such an understanding is necessary for this information to have true value. – Yours, etc,
PAUL MacDONNELL
Head of Policy & EU Affairs,
Insurance Ireland,
Molesworth Street,
Dublin 2.