FOS receives over 900 PPI complaints a day

2 August 2011 10:33 am | By Natalie Holt

The Financial Ombudsman Service received complaints about payment protection insurance at an average rate of over 900 per working day for the three months to the end of June.

Statistics published by the FOS today show that it received 81,301 complaints over April, May and June, more than double the amount of complaints received in the same period last year.

PPI complaints totalled 56,025 for the three months to the end of June, compared to 104,597 for the full 2010/11 financial year.

Over half of PPI complaints were upheld.

A backlog of PPI cases built up during the judicial review brought by the British Bankers’ Association earlier this year over the FSA’s PPI complaints measures.

FOS principal ombudsman and decisions director Tony Boorman say the efforts by many banks to clear this backlog, after the High Court ruled in favour of the FSA, should see more cases closed with higher uphold rates.

But he says: “The real challenge, and continuing uncertainty, will not appear until the second half of the financial year. By then, banks and others will be dealing with cases they received after the judicial review, where there is no dispute that they should be following the ombudsman’s approach and the FSA’s complaints handling guidance.

“Banks and others are already reporting record numbers of new complaints and it will be some time before we see the impact of those on our figures. So it is difficult to tell whether we will be seeing still higher numbers yet or whether the figures will now start to decline.”

The FOS says it saw an increase in mortgage-related complaints over the period to 2,044, against 7,060 for 2010/11. Some 36 per cent of complaints were upheld.

Structured capital at risk products generated only 34 complaints, but 96 per cent complaints were upheld over the same period. The uphold rate for the whole of 2010/11 was 52 per cent.

Uphold rates for investment products and services remained high. There were 254 complaints about portfolio management, with 68 per cent were upheld, while there were 178 complaints about unit-linked investment bonds with 70 per cent upheld.

There were 347 complaints about personal pensions, and 39 per cent upheld. The FOS received 108 Sipp complaints and 57 complaints about occupational pension transfers and opt-outs, and upheld around half of complaints over the same period.

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