Not upheld: service failure - delayed provision of payslip confirmations complaint against Novia Financial Plc trading as Wealthtime

Decision detail

Summary

Mr A complained to the FOS about repeated delays in receiving payslip confirmations from Novia for his SIPP income drawdown payments, with delays ranging from 5 to 11 days across three incidents between June 2025 and January 2026. Although Novia acknowledged administrative lapses and offered £175 in total compensation, Mr A remained dissatisfied, expressing concerns that the delays indicated wider systemic problems with Novia's processes and requesting an undertaking for prompt notification of transactions. The ombudsman found no financial impact on Mr A, as his income payments were received as scheduled and he had online access to verify transactions, and declined to require Novia to change its processes, noting that such regulatory oversight is the FCA's responsibility. The ombudsman upheld the fairness of the £175 compensation already offered and declined to ask Novia to take further action.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman distinguished between the FCA's regulatory role in overseeing business processes and the ombudsman's role in compensating individual customers for demonstrable harm. While acknowledging Mr A's concerns about potential systemic issues, the ombudsman found no evidence of financial impact, unauthorized withdrawals, or delayed payments themselves. The ombudsman noted that Mr A received his income as expected and had online access to verify transactions, therefore the delayed payslips caused frustration and concern but no compensable loss beyond what had already been offered.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website