Santander has emerged as the most complained about financial services firm for investment complaints for the second half of last year.
Santander received 2,236 investment complaints between July and December last year, a 14 per cent increase on the 1,956 investment complaints it received in the same period in 2011.
Over the period it upheld 63 per cent of investment complaints, compared to an uphold rate of 57 per cent in the second half of 2011.
Barclays was the second most complained about firm for investments, with 2,151 complaints. Lloyds TSB received 2,009 investment complaints, HSBC had 1,695 and Bank of Scotland had 1,659.
Barclays upheld 43 per cent of its investment complaints, Lloyds upheld 39 per cent, HSBC upheld 41 per cent and Bank of Scotland upheld 59 per cent.
It emerged in February that Santander was being investigated by the regulator over the quality of the bank’s investment advice following a mystery shopping exercise. Santander pulled out of investment advice last month.
A Santander spokeswoman says: “Improving the service we offer at Santander UK to all our customers is our top priority.”
Plan Money director Peter Chadborn says: “The worrying thing is it takes a long time for anecdotal cases of poor advice to translate into these kind of complaints figures. Problems with advice on such a scale should be identified sooner.”
<!–
<!–
<!–
<!–
–>
–>
–>
–>
