Protection of the Consumer of Financial Products: the Role of Legal Redress

This article examines the role of consumer redress, whether through courts or non-judiciary means, with respect to financial products and services aimed at non-professionals in the light of the regulations introduced over the last fifteen years. Redress complements direct regulation and constitute an ex post mechanism for monitoring products and services. As such, it is likely to possess an intrinsic cost advantage over ex ante monitoring in deterring undesirable behavior on the part of financial services providers.