Ombudsman is a Swedish word, and means a person, ideally an unbiased outsider, whose job is to settle disputes. You can have an ombudsman-type official or service anywhere that disagreements occur - and of course in the world of business and finance, you get plenty of those.

The FOS is organized and funded by the UK government, so its services are free to use. Individual people go to the FOS with complaints or questions about both personal and business money problems - mortgages and credit queries are very common - and businesses use it to settle disagreements both with customers and with other businesses.

If a person or business doesn't agree with the ruling of the FOS, they don't have to accept it and can then take their case to court (which, of course, will probably cost money.) However, if they do accept the judgment it then has the same status as a court ruling and must be followed.