(1) The Financial Services Ombudsman shall, as part of an investigation, try, as far as possible, to resolve a complaint by mediation.
(2) The Financial Services Ombudsman shall engage with complainants and providers to ensure that the objective of mediation is understood to promote engagement in the mediation process.
(3) Participation in mediation by the parties to a complaint is voluntary, and a party may withdraw at any time.
(4) The Financial Services Ombudsman may, on reasonable grounds, abandon an attempt to resolve a complaint by mediation as he or she considers appropriate.
(5) Evidence of anything said or admitted during a mediation, or an attempted mediation, of a complaint, and any document prepared for the purposes of the mediation, are not admissible -
(a) in any subsequent investigation, under this Part, of the complaint (unless the person who made the admission, or to whom the document relates, consents to its admission), or
(b) in any proceedings before a court or