The Financial Ombudsman Service chair Baroness Manzoor will step down less than a week after its chief executive quit unexpectedly.
Baroness Manzoor will leave the body on 1 August after completing two terms in office over six years.
This follows Financial Ombudsman Service chief executive Abby Thomas resigning with immediate effect last Friday.
Baroness Manzoor appeared before the Treasury Committee today and was asked by its chair Dame Meg Hillier if the body was being left “rudderless” with the loss of its most senior heads.
But Baroness Manzoor said that Deputy chief ombudsman James Dipple-Johnstone, who will act as chief ombudsman, and chief finance and risk officer Jenny Simmonds, who will act as chief executive, were “very experienced”.
She added it could take “between six to 12 months” to fill the chief executive’s post as this will be carried out by the new chair, who is yet to be appointed.
Baroness Manzoor would say little about the departure of Thomas, despite repeated questions from Treasury Committee members.
Although MPs established that the body has agreed to a severance package with Thomas, the size of which Baroness Manzoor would not disclose.
“We have streamlined the Financial Ombudsman Service, introducing new service standards with a focus on timeliness, tackling older cases, improving quality, and better customer service,” said Baroness Manzoor in an earlier statement.
Last week, the service said that City firms who have customer complaints against them rejected will get a rebate of more than 25%, while claims management companies will be charged for the first time to bring cases to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Thomas became the fourth head of a regulator to suddenly leave her post after the Chancellor warned of the danger of rep tape stifling growth in the City at her keynote Mansion House speech in November.
Rachel Reeves added that regulations put in place to protect the economy after the 2008 global financial crisis had “gone too far”.
Last month, former Amazon UK head Doug Gurr was installed as interim chair of the Competition and Markets Authority after Marcus Bokkerink left suddenly, after just over two years in the role.
In November, Homes England chair Peter Freeman and chief executive Peter Denton announced they would resign after being sent a letter by housing minister Matthew Pennycook, setting out higher 2025 homebuilding targets.
