*** ANNUAL PRESTIGE LECTURE - 29 SEPTEMBER 2009 *** 

PRESTIGE LECTURE

Delivered by David Thomas

Principal Ombudsman,

Financial Ombudsman Service

“Building Confidence in financial services – the role of the ombudsman”

Date: Tuesday 29 September 2009

Time: 6pm to 7pm - Doors open at 5.00pm

Venue: National Skills Academy for Financial Service, St Andrews Street, Norwich NR2 4TP

FREE subject to prior reservation at info@fignorfolk.com

                        This event is kindly supported by Birketts LLP 

DAVID THOMAS BIOGRAPHY

David Thomas qualified as a lawyer in England and Wales in 1969, and as a lawyer in Ireland in 1991. He led a firm of lawyers with offices in Liverpool and London.

In 1997 has was appointed as the Banking Ombudsman. On the creation of the unified Financial Ombudsman Service, he became Principal Ombudsman responsible for banking and mortgages. Later he also took over responsibility for pensions and split-capital investment trusts.

Since 2005 he has been Corporate Director and Principal Ombudsman – responsible for: corporate policy; legislation/rules; jurisdiction/powers; relations with government/regulators/the European Commission; and cases with wider implications. He becomes acting Chief Ombudsman on 1 November 2009.

The Financial Ombudsman Service has a staff of 1,000+, dealing with 700,000+ enquiries and 120,000+ new cases a year, covering:

• 21,000 financial businesses regulated by the Financial Services Authority (including banks, building societies, insurers, investment companies and investment/insurance/mortgage advisers);
• 80,000 consumer credit businesses licensed by the Office of Fair Trading; and
• National Savings & Investments.

David Thomas is a member of the steering committee of FIN-NET, the European network of financial dispute‑resolution schemes. He has advised and/or given seminars on complaint-handling in Armenia, Belgium, Brazil, Cyprus, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and Uzbekistan.

He is also a member of:

• the non-executive Board of the Office of Legal Complaints, the new statutory body which will take over the handling of complaints against all lawyers in England and Wales;
• the governing Council of QueenMary, University of London (including Barts and the Royal London Medical School) and its Audit and Compliance Committee;
• the Audit Advisory Committee of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman; and
• the governing Court of the City of London Solicitors' Company.

He was previously:

• for eight years, a member of the Accountancy and Actuarial Discipline Board, which deals with public-interest cases against qualified accountants and actuaries in the United Kingdom;
• President of Liverpool Law Society, a Council member of The Law Society and a member of the Committee of the City of London Law Society.