Background
How was the wider-implications process created?
In November 2003 HM Treasury, announced a review of the effectiveness of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, two years after it came into force. In July 2004, as part of that review, the FSA and ombudsman service consulted on proposals concerning the handling of issues with wider implications.
In March 2005 the FSA and ombudsman service published [in chapter 6 of Consultation Paper CP05/4] updated arrangements for handling issues with wider implications. And in September 2005 [in Policy Statement PS05/10] the FSA and ombudsman service published new procedural rules.
In April 2007 the ombudsman service’s jurisdiction was extended (under the Consumer Credit Act 2006) to cover all businesses with a standard consumer credit licence issued by the OFT. As a consequence of this, the existing wider-implications process was extended to include the OFT.