Financial Services Tribunal: for justice, for business confidence (Pt 2)

• SMEs need affordable access to a primary dispute resolution forum to re-establish consumer confidence in credit markets to pre-financial crisis levels.
• Historical examples establish that the financial industry benefits from offering its customers favourable dispute resolution terms, as they boost the market confidence that underpins economic growth.
• The financial industry should therefore encourage government to establish a Financial Services Tribunal as a means to stimulate consumer confidence and a return to growth in SME lending.

In previous New Law Journal issues I summarised the ‘access to justice’ case for a Financial Services Tribunal (FST) made by Richard Samuel in three articles he published in the Capital Markets Law Journal . It is now well-understood and widely, if not universally, accepted that SMEs need a more accessible primary dispute resolution forum (PDR) than is afforded by the courts if they are to have a real chance