Any consumer with a complaint about their financial services provider may approach the NFO for our free assistance, with the only requirement being:
Please note that although you are not required to follow your service provider’s complaints process prior to approaching us, we do advise that you do so.
We resolve complaints by investigating the complaint according to the rules of the NFO, which can be found here.
The NFO is registered as an organisation for non-profit (NPC) under registration no. 2023/162407/08. The NFO is recognised as an industry ombud scheme by the Ombud Council (OC/001/24).
The NFO is an umbrella Financial Services Ombud scheme formed by the amalgamation of 4 separate previously existing South African Ombud Schemes: the offices of the Banking Ombud (OBS); the Credit Ombud (CO); the office of the Long-term Insurance Ombud (OLTI); and the Short-Term Insurance Ombudsman (OSTI).
In June 2021, the World Bank published a report on the role of the financial sector Ombud system in South Africa. The report recommended that the overall Ombud system and its components be reformed to make it fit for purpose and to adequately address the complexity of the South African financial system.
The OBS; CO; OLTI; and OSTI entered into discussions early in 2020 to explore a voluntary amalgamation. The culmination of the work of the four Ombud schemes resulted in the OBS, CO, OLTI and OSTI being replaced by the National Financial Ombud Scheme South Africa (NFO).
The NFO commenced operations on 1 March 2024.