The Financial Industry Complaints Services (FICS) plans to make its complaints process more transparent and user-friendly.

CEO Alison Maynard told Sunrise Exchange News FICS is in the process of changing some of its rules, and in the meantime wants more disputes to be handled by case managers and conciliators, rather than the FICS panel.

“We want the system to be more workable, and hopefully we’ll implement these changes by early next year,” she said.

There has been some debate in alternative dispute resolution circles recently on the cost to industries of free consumer services like FICS. But Ms Maynard says the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) gave FICS members “a clear message” at the service’s conference in Melbourne last week.

“ASIC’s Executive Director Consumer Protection, Greg Tanzer, said external dispute resolution schemes are fundamental to consumer confidence, and should be run at no cost to consumers,” she said.