In 2015, to help more people built sound financial habits, the Financial Ombudsman Institution (FOI) and the Taipei City Government, the New Taipei City Government, the Taichung City Government, and the Kaohsiung City Government jointly organized 9 sessions of the 2015 Financial Consumer Awareness Seminar, each with a theme adapted to the needs of a specific age group, allowing financial consumers to choose one suited to their needs. The series of seminars met with an enthusiastic response from the public from the time of its launching in August, and attracted more than 2,100 attendees by the time it ended in November.

The focal theme of this awareness campaign was "Three Keys to Protect Your Interests as a Financial Consumer." Through lively presentation of legal analysis and case studies, the FOI instructors at these sessions explained the key mechanisms of the Truthful Advertising Obligation, the KYC (Know-Your-Customer) and Suitability Analysis, and the Full Explanation and Risk Disclosure Obligation embodied in the Financial Consumer Protection Act (FCPA). After the sessions, the audience knew better how to protect their own interests as financial consumers and avoid disputes.

Apart from its efforts in promoting public awareness of significant FCPA provisions, the FOI also invited experts to speak on financial must-knows targeted respectively at consumers in their 40s, 30s, and 20s, addressing disputes commonly seen in financial product transactions. The first speech, "Medical Insurance Must-Knows for Consumers in Their 40s," provided consumers with insights on how to plan their medical insurance. The speech, "Look Before You Invest: Advice for Consumers in Their 30s," reminded consumers of what to look for when buying investment-linked insurance policies. The speech, "Buy Funds Smart: Tips for Consumers in Their 20s," provided consumers with easily-accessible, up-to-date financial planning information on how to choose and what to look for when buying fund products.

According to the FOI statistics, most financial consumer disputes in complaints and ombudsman cases are related to medical insurance claims, business solicitation, and violation of duty of disclosure obligations. "The earlier a dispute is resolved, the more efficient it is," says Kuan-Chun Johnny Chang, the FOI Ombudsman Committee Chair and President. This year, the FOI invited experts and scholars with wide-ranging legal and financial experiences and expertise to share with the audience their insights on dispute cases they had handled. These real-life cases were provided to raise public awareness as a basis for preventive action, and audience feedback was positive. In the future, the FOI will keep promoting sound financial consumption knowledge among the public through seminars, media publicity, and other channels in the spirit that "an ounce of prevention" is worth a "a pound of resolution."

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