FSA may fine one more bank over complaints
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The FSA could yet sanction another bank over poor complaints handling following its £2.8m fine of Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest.
The regulator announced earlier today that RBS and NatWest had been fined £2.8m over failures in the way the banks handled complaints, including a delay in responding to customers and advising them of their rights to complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
The fine is a result of a thematic review carried out by the FSA of complaints handling processes by UK retail banks.
The review included the banking groups responsible for over 70 per cent of complaints reported to the FSA, and over 60 per cent of those resolved by the FOS, between July 2008 and June 2009.
In April 2010 the FSA said the review led to five banks undertaking “major changes” to their complaints handling procedures, and revealed that two of the five had been referred to enforcement for further investigation.
The FSA has today confirmed that RBS and NatWest are considered to be one bank in the context of the review, suggesting that one more bank could still be fined.
On the RBS and NatWest fine FSA managing director of enforcement and financial crime Margaret Cole says: “The poor complaints procedure of RBS and NatWest came to light during our review of complaint handling in major banks.
“The review showed that banks need to make major changes to handle consumer complaints fairly and the FSA will continue to take appropriate action to ensure these changes are put in place.”
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Readers' comments (4)
Rod | 11 Jan 2011 1:12 pm
Wow thats news to us all! banks responsible for 70% of complaints and 60% of those resolved by FOS.
So why is RDR designed by the FSA to give the IFA distribution to the banks??? Is the answer that the FSA is run by Bankers?
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Pissed Off IFA | 11 Jan 2011 1:38 pm
No doubt, FSA will continue looking for more to fine! I reckon that is already £5 million in the pot this year for their bonuses and Xmas party. If George Osborne was to raid the FSA, he would be able to cut the country's deficit overnight. However, I doubt Hector would ever allow that!
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Anonymous | 11 Jan 2011 3:23 pm
I wonder what the shortfall will be in the FSA's budget be for next year and how much of this £2.8m will go towards it?
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Julian Stevens | 11 Jan 2011 3:51 pm
What did the FSA do about Barclays shovelling the (cash) life savings of all and sundry into that Aviva Global Balanced Managed fund, which subsequently lost 50% of its value? Apparently nothing, because Barclays' handling of the tsunami of complaints which came flooding in was such a disgrace that the victims actually marched on Parliament to demand that their MP's force the FSA to get off its backside and kick that of Barclays.
If that's the FSA's idea of fulfilling its statutory obligation to protect the interests of consumers, then it needs seriously to rethink its position instead of battering doggedly ahead with its RDR. The FSA is forever wittering on about the need to restore the public's trust and confidence in the FS industry. It might do well to take a good, hard, critical look at its own back yard.
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