In her foreword to the Annual Report Judge Leona Theron, the Chairperson of the Ombudsman’s Council said that, in accordance with accepted best practice standards, the Council had approved the appointment of and the terms of reference for Dr de la Rey to conduct an external review which would entail an in-depth investigation and qualitative assessment of key aspects of the office’s business.  Dr de la Rey released the report of her Independent Review of the office on 16 April 2015. Dr de la Rey used the International Network of Financial Services Ombudsman Schemes document (INFO Network) “Effective approaches to fundamental principles” as a measure to test the way in which the office works and said the following in the concluding paragraph of her report:

“OLTI complies with and exceeds international standards and expectations for a financial ombud schemes and continues to serve as a benchmark for other financial ombud schemes.”

The report, Dr de la Rey’s recommendations and the response of the office to those recommendations appear on our website,ombud.co.za.