Financial Services Ombudsman Joe Meade ordered a building society to repay €29,000 to a couple after it charged them an early repayment fee of as much as €59,000 for switching their commercial mortgage to a rival.

The Ombudsman Bureau, which was set up in April, yesterday published a string of its decisions on unresolved complaints between October and December from customers of financial services providers such as credit unions and insurers. The bureau has received 3,300 complaints since its creation.

The Ombudsman said he had planned to name the building society involved in the mortgage complaint, though decided against it after the society indicated this week it was prepared to legally challenge the matter.

"With the building society, it was the second such complaint on this policy. I decided if this is happening, there is a need to change things," Mr Meade said. He referred the matter to the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority.

The couple that applied to change their commercial mortgage paid the early redemption fee under protest but then complained to the Ombudsman that the fee was unfair and unreasonable. Mr Meade ruled that the provision in the mortgage agreement, which the building society relied on to impose the fee, was based on a fixed formula that was not a genuine pre-estimate of the society's loss from an early repayment of the mortgage loan.

The Ombudsman referred six issues to the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority in 2005 and has informed the regulator of two other matters so far this year. The number of complaints to the Ombudsman rose 23 per cent between April and December because "more bodies came under my remit, such as stockbrokers, and because there's more awareness of the Ombudsman because of public speaking I've done and my previous report. Also, people are generally more aware of their rights".

The Financial Services Ombudsman has the power to award as much as €250,000 to consumers, as well as to companies with a turnover of less than €3 million and unincorporated bodies such as charities and clubs. The highest compensation awarded by Mr Meade since the creation of his office was €56,000 against a credit institution and €32,000 against an insurer.

Most of the complaints against credit institutions are related to problematic administration of account transactions, followed by unfair treatment of customers in lending disputes, according to a report released last month by the Ombudsman.

Mr Meade's office also received a complaint from a couple that was not informed that the guaranteed bond in which they had invested most of their life savings was based on derivatives, which are high-risk financial instruments. The Ombudsman awarded €6,500.

The couple put €80,000 out of their total savings of €100,000 into the bond after they were told it would earn a return in excess of deposit rates.

The Ombudsman found that the nature of the investment, which didn't produce any return, was never explained to the couple and that they might not have made the investment if they had known the bond was based on derivatives.