Introduction to our service standards portfolio
Service standards are specified levels of performance that the FSA has agreed to meet in performing its regulatory functions. Most are voluntary commitments; however, some relate to provisions in the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.
The service standards portfolio provides you with information about the areas of our service that we measure, how we are performing against these measures and our monitoring of customer satisfaction. Standards apply to a range of our services, including how we deal with telephone enquiries, correspondence and applications. We will introduce further standards where they will help us meet your needs.
It is vital to the interests of our stakeholders that we make the right regulatory decisions and on occasion this will mean that some transactions take longer than normal. Given a choice between meeting a standard and taking more time to make the right decision, we will take more time.
View our latest results for performance against our service standards.
Key changes to our service standards
New standards
With effect from 1 April 2007, we have introduced two further new standards relating to customer satisfaction. This follows the successful completion of our baselining exercise. These baseline results are outlined in the customer satisfaction section of the performance account. The new standards apply to all communications made to the FSA Consumer and Firm Contact Centres.
Tightening our standards
We are constantly seeking to improve our performance, and have tightened one of our existing service standards with effect from 1 April 2007:
- Correspondence standard - Scope widened to include certain types of query not previously covered, including questions on fees.
We have also reduced the number of standards applicable to Collective Investment Scheme (CIS) transactions, merging several similar standards and widening the scope to include all CIS applications. We have now committed to a minimum standard which states that:
- 100% of all CIS application will be completed within 6 months.
We will continue to review our service standards regularly based on your feedback to ensure we deliver high quality service to our customers.
Customer satisfaction
The FSA is committed to improving customer service, operating fair and efficient processes, and making the right regulatory decisions. To enable us to measure this we have developed customer satisfaction monitoring processes which we aim to continually review and expand to cover more of our key transactions. The results are used to measure the quality of service we provide and we also use the feedback directly to improve our systems and processes to make ourselves easier to do business with.
Comments
If you have any comments on our service standards, or suggestions on how we might further improve the usefulness of the performance account, then please contact us at: performance.account@fsa.gov.uk. We welcome your feedback.
