Informing short term lenders about the role of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) in resolving disputes, the organisation’s Outreach Manager, Peter Bristow, will be speaking at the Association of Short Term Lenders’ (astl) next quarterly meeting, held on 7th March 2013.

He will explain how the FOS can help lenders and their customers when things go wrong, including which complaints the Ombudsman can consider and how the service goes about its investigations and makes its decisions.

He will also give an insight into the Ombudsman's wider role and current workload at a time of exceptional demand for its services by consumers.

The meeting is primarily for members but is also attended by potential new members, as well as associate members.

Peter Bristow has been with the Ombudsman since the late 1990s, working as an adjudicator resolving banking disputes before moving to his current role of Outreach Manager.

Commenting on the announcement, Benson Hersch, Chief Executive of the astl, said: “A significant number of people in the bridging industry and wider financial services are unaware of the impact that the Ombudsman has on their businesses and where its remit starts and stops, so Peter Bristow’s presentation promises to be very insightful.

“This talk by the Ombudsman is part of a range of initiatives that we have put in place to provide added value to astl members and associate members.”

The meeting will take place from 3pm until 5pm on Thursday 7th March and will include updates on compliance and the astl’s series of meetings with the FSA followed by networking.