"The most significant finding in 2008 was a decrease in the degree of conflict as the trend for reaching agreement on reports gathered pace", stated Carlos Fernández, Bolsa de Madrid Ombudsman during the presentation of his report. Last year the Ombudsman office received 32 claims, one more than in 2007 with agreements representing 28% of the total compared to 16% the previous year. As far as conflictive claims are concerned, there was an increase in the number of agreements reached during claims processing, which went from 45% to 82%.
"The year 2008 wasn't a complicated year in terms of information requests, though the market trend was consistently affected by adverse conditions, which brought about a great deal of calls in which investors expressed emotional concerns unrelated to the stock market or financial market activity", said Carlos Fernández.
As for the information service, calls from individual investors accounted for 67% of information requests, up from 60% a year earlier. The other segments kept the percentages of previous years, although the media and university and cultural centres groups had a smaller presence.
Most requests for information received by the Ombudsman were connected with the market. This is precisely the area where the Ombudsman works towards increasing individual investors' financial culture so that a greater understanding of the market can help him or her to take informed investment decisions, thus avoiding the recourse to information requests. Continuing the years-long trend of avoiding complaints in writing whenever possible, the Ombudsman office in 2008 received 32 claims compared to 31 and 36 lodged the previous years.
It is worth noting that the Ombudsman logged a significant decrease in claims falling outside of the office's purview, 22% of the total compared to 35% in 2007, which gives evidence of the public's better understanding of the office competences.