Barclays Bank UK PLC & Ors, R (on the application of) v Financial Ombudsman Service Limited

Facts

Four banks — Barclays Bank UK plc, National Westminster Bank plc, Vanquis Bank Limited and Santander UK plc — extended credit facilities, by overdraft or credit card, to members of the public. Four customers complained to the Financial Ombudsman Service Limited that their credit relationships with their respective banks were and remained unfair, largely because unaffordable credit had been extended, the agreed test of unfairness being section 140A of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. In decisions taken by ombudsmen in July 2024, the FOS adopted a new interpretation of its jurisdiction over such complaints, and each bank brought judicial review proceedings challenging that interpretation and its application of the time limit in DISP 2.8.2R(2) of the Dispute Resolution: Complaints handbook issued by the Financial Conduct Authority. The claims were consolidated, and on 1 May 2025 Bourne J granted the FCA permission to intervene on terms that it bear its own costs, together with a non-duplication order governing the claimants' submissions. Following a fully contested trial, part of which went part-heard, the court gave judgment in the banks' favour and quashed the impugned decisions (R (Barclays & Ors.) v FOS [2026] EWHC 1555 (Admin)). The banks' customers, the interested parties, took no part. What remained in dispute was the proportion of costs recoverable and the level of any payment on account.