Resolving disputes

The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) provides consumers with a free, independent service for resolving disputes with financial firms.

We do our utmost to resolve complaints directly, saving our customers the trouble of appealing to the ombudsman. But when a customer makes a complaint and we can't reach an agreement, the FOS can be asked to make an independent assessment.

The lower the percentage of such complaints upheld by the FOS, the better a firm's complaints-handling.

Here are the latest figures published 28 February 2012 by the FOS for Nationwide. And as the overall figures show, our complaints-handling significantly outperforms the industry average.