The Concept of Financial Commissioner — a New Mechanism for Ensuring the Balance between Private and Public Interests in the Financial Area

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the new legal concept, namely, the concept of a financial commissioner: his place and role in the system of consumer protection, basic prerequisites of creation and basic principles of his or her work. The author focuses on the foundations of the public legal status of the financial commissioner, the criteria for attributing disputes to his jurisdiction and the procedure for their consideration. The author has investigated the mechanisms applied to ensure independence, impartiality of decision-making, increase of access to justice for citizens, as well as tools to stimulate pro-consumer behavior of the financial market participants. The paper examines the mechanisms underlining the new legal regulation balancing the public interest of consumer protection with the private interests of citizens and financial organizations participating in the processes under consideration. The paper provides the analysis of the first results of enforcement and evaluates the trends. Based on statistics, it is concluded that for citizens the process of resolving disputes with a financial organization has become easier, more accessible and faster. As for changes and adjustments in the behavior of market participants, it is too early to talk about reliable data. However, the data show that some improvements have taken place.