Monday 28 February 2011

The number of complaints to ombudsman rise by 15%

Complaints to the ombudsman about financial services rose by 15% in the second
half of 2010 compared with the first half of the year.
Lloyds Banking Group topped the complaints list, the ombudsman said, although it is the UK's largest bank.
The figures, which cover complaints about banks, insurance and investment firms, showed the ombudsman service had received 97,237 new queries.
This list only covered those complaints which required mediation.

The ombudsman upheld 53% of complaints in favour of consumers in the second half of 2010, compared with 44% in the previous six months.
That increased success rate for complainants was identical to the rate recorded in the second half of 2009.
Separately, banks are also publishing data on their websites about all their complaints for the same six-month period.
These figures will cover customer gripes which were dealt with, as well as any unresolved cases that went to the ombudsman.
This data will be collated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and will be published at the end of March.
Worries
Complaints going to the ombudsman were again dominated by worries over the sale of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI).

Most complained about groups

  • Lloyds Banking Group: 22,181 (22,420 in previous six months)
  • Royal Bank of Scotland: 8,644 (6,469)
  • Barclays: 8,256 (9,215)
  • HSBC: 8,238 (4,031)
  • Santander: 6,759 (5,372)
Source: Financial Ombudsman Service. New complaints July - Dec 2010 (new complaints in Jan - June 2010 in brackets)
These accounted for more than half of the new complaints received by the ombudsman in the second half of the year.
The largest banking groups headed the complaints list.
There were 22,181 complaints about Lloyds Banking Group, of which 12,234 were specifically about Lloyds TSB - the most of any single business.
Five financial services brands - Lloyds TSB, Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, HSBC and Santander UK - had more than 6,000 complaints about them received by the ombudsman.
"The latest set of complaints data continues to show that while some financial businesses are improving the way they handle their customers' complaints, some regrettably are not," said chief ombudsman Natalie Ceeney.
"Taking the trouble to handle complaints well is an important part of a business's ongoing relationship with its customers - and it is the key to providing really excellent customer service."
The ombudsman accepted that the size of the business would affect the complaints levels.
However, when it consulted with experts on how this should be taken into account in the figures, they disagreed, so the figures are published in their raw form with no adjustment for size.
Of the large banking groups, there were increases in complaints to the ombudsman from customers of Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC and Santander, compared with the first six months of the year.

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