Chartered financial planner, Hayley North, has been appointed to the board of the Channel Islands Financial Ombudsman as a non-executive member.
CIFO resolves complaints from the public about financial services in both Guernsey and Jersey.
Hayley has 25 years of experience in the financial services industry and founded her award-winning financial planning company, Rose & North, in 2012. LinkedIn.
Since relocating to Guernsey to be closer to family, she has thrown herself into island life. You might recognise her from her thought-provoking opinion columns in the Guernsey Press.
Hayley found out that CIFO was looking for a non-exec through the Women in Public Life newsletter so we asked her what attracted her to the role:
“As a financial planner and having worked in financial services for nearly 25 years, I have been heavily involved in working with both financial service providers and consumers and have a very deep understanding of the issues both face. I feel this gives me a unique perspective on and interest in complaints, why they happen and how they can be avoided and best resolved. I have also had experiences of vulnerability myself and raised and pursued complaints with providers as a result of these and learned a lot in the process.
“CIFO is already doing an excellent job and has a great relationship with providers and I am excited to see how these can be further leveraged to deliver better outcomes for consumers and make life easier for providers.
“Jersey and Guernsey each have different profiles in terms of the type of complaints CIFO receives and this can teach us a lot about the needs and challenges in each territory. I feel that complaints are at the heart of a good financial services industry and that they are critical to improving consumer outcomes more generally and therefore the lives of islanders.
“I have also always believed it is important for women to be more visible in these kinds of roles in financial services and wanted to be an active part of this change.
“I am excited to see what I can learn from my fellow board members and the excellent CIFO team and also what I can add to CIFO from my own experience. I am looking forward to collaborating at this level and learning new skills in the process. I am also looking forward to working across the two islands to see what we can learn from Jersey and vice versa and how this might be applied to other areas”.