FOS figures reveal increase in complaints against big banks
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The number of new complaints received by the Financial Ombudsman Service against the large banking groups has increased significantly.
The figures, published today, show new cases received in the last six months with Lloyds Banking Group leading the way followed by Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland.
Lloyds received 20,190 complaints across all its brands while Barclays received 10,892 and RBS received 7098 complaints. Seven hundred new Barclays Bank complaints related to investments, the highest number of investment complaints received by any institution.
Last April, Money Marketing revealed adviser concerns about Barclays advisers putting large amounts of client savings into a single fund.
The figures show a large increase compared to the previous six months where the Lloyds group received 15,233, Barclays received 8,802 and RBS received 5,883.
The publication of the new figures has renewed criticism of the methodology behind the data with the ABI calling on the data to take account of the amount of business transacted.
Abbey received 4918 complaints in the last six months, HSBC received 3881, Citibank received 1844 while credit card provider MBNA received 2185 and Capital One received 1609. Building society Nationwide received 1349 complaints.
Sesame, St James’s Place and Openwork are the only distributors on the complaints list. Sesame received 98 complaints, Openwork 43 and SJP 45.
Aviva’s brands received 1411 complaints while Axa received 847 and Legal & General received 736.
The FOS has also published data on the results of cases resolved by the FOS in the same six month period in terms of individual brands.
Barclays Bank saw 65 per cent of cases resolved in favour of the customer, Lloyds TSB Bank saw 51 per cent in favour of the customer while the figure for Natwest was 48 per cent.
Sesame has 52 per cent of claims resolved in favour of the customer, SJP had 53 per cent and Openwork had 37 per cent.
PPI providers saw much higher percentages of cases resolved in favour of the customer.
Credit card provider MBNA saw 85 per cent of complaints settled in favour of the customer, this rose to 99 per cent for its general insurance complaints.
ABI Director of Consumer Strategy Maggie Craig says: “It is important for consumers to have clear and meaningful information about the performance of companies who manage their insurances and investments, including how they handle complaints.
“The ABI’s own data puts complaints into clearer perspective. For example, the actual number of motor insurance complaints referred to the FOS equated to one complaint per 4,100 motor policies; one complaint per 12,700 travel insurance policies, and one complaint for every 14,700 annuity contracts. Going forward, it is important for the FOS to adopt a similar approach when publishing its complaints data. This approach will help customers to make informed choices about an individual company’s performance, and provide the right incentive for individual firms to improve their performance as necessary.”
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Readers' comments (11)
Evan Owen | 25 Feb 2010 11:25 am
And these are only the tip of the iceberg, the vast majority of those wronged are afraid to complain, the big boys treat this as par for the course while the FSA cannot be bothered to supervise the sales practices, it is apparently too busy with 'prudential supervision', how effective was that then?
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How funny!! | 25 Feb 2010 11:27 am
... are YOU reading this FSA/Hector Sants??
Ain't it about time you fined/banned one (or more) of the Banks Financial Services arms??
... silly me, dreaming again!!
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Anonymous | 25 Feb 2010 11:27 am
Can't wait to see how hard the FSA come down on the big banks.
Oh hang on a minute...........
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Incompetent Regulators Awards Team | 25 Feb 2010 11:32 am
Well where are the IFA figures then? Last count less than 1% upheld? Then we should have less than 1% less aggro and cost in this whole regulatory mess.
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David Lawson | 25 Feb 2010 12:32 pm
Just wait until after 2012 these figures will look quite good as the IFA sector will be decimated and the FSA would have got its wish and made all but the very wealthiest go to the Banks for 'good advice'
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derekt | 25 Feb 2010 12:32 pm
well i know where im going for sound financial advice.'know a good bank? anyone'. :)
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How funny (again)!! | 25 Feb 2010 1:03 pm
Just re-read that last para:
" ... This approach will help customers to make informed choices about an individual company’s performance ... "
NO IT WON'T - customers still don't have a clue abou who does what & who provides which advice - and as IFA numbers dive like the Zeppelin, customers will only be left with the Banks ... oh, and Tescos/Asda/etc (ere ... buy a CI policy and get a free ready meal thrown in!!)
" ... and provide the right incentive for individual firms to improve their performance as necessary ...”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ... oh boy, how naive ... the Banks will continue to provide cr*p service/products/advice and will rack up complaints ... but the FSA won't dare touch them ... ...
Ooh, ooh - nightmare scenario - "Bully Boy" Brown gets in again - c/o 'Norma and Norman Numpty' (who are Labour-through-and-through) ... and he gives Ed Balls the Treasury remit!!
Oh God, this could be worse than ANY Stephen King novel ... ...
Trust me.
It will be.
(and no, I'm not a Tory supporter - just hate Labour with a passion!!)
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Roger Weeks | 25 Feb 2010 2:21 pm
I know that the number of complaints against the banks doesn't come as a big surprise to any of us, but what does the percentage upheld in favour of the customer/client say about what the banks are doing?
It beggars belief that every other complaint is justified!
Surely that's got to be a "no-brainer" as far as the FSA are concerned (and every common sense person's mind can see) so that they can pull apart how the powerful banks provide advice.
Who's protecting who here?
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mick mcmanus | 25 Feb 2010 2:53 pm
I can assure @11:32 am that the FOS uphold a far far greater number than 1% of the complaints against IFAs. Where did you get this figure from?
Its also important to remember that the figures above take no account at all of complaints that have been resolved with the clients without the need for a FOS referral.
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M J Winfield | 25 Feb 2010 3:08 pm
Is it about time to audit the system, the FSA take no action against Bank Complaints, While the FOS is swamped by them.
The time scale for the FOS to rule on a complaint is fast if not passed what is reasonable.
Yet there appears nothing anybody can do to challenge the conduct of the FSA.
I suggest if the industry filled every MP's post bag, Cc, every newspaper expressing the situation in a concise logical fashion, Parliament would be forced to act.
The logic being the only way to get a politicians mind of expenses is to challenge their seat, for votes mean lots of noted (£5+£10+£20 & £50) to them..
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