Financial complaints soar 50pc

Complaints about financial services firms soared by more than 50 per cent in the first six months of this year, figures revealed, with disputes about payment protection insurance (PPI) accounting for nearly two-thirds of the new cases.
By The Newsroom
Published 10th Sep 2011, 07:00 BST

The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) received almost 150,000 new complaints over the six months to June, about 820 per day, up 54 per cent from 97,237 in the preceding half year, with PPI accounting for 98,632 of the new actions.

During most of the period, four of the main high street banks put complaints about mis-selling on hold pending the outcome of a test case on the issue.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

That case went against the banks in April, when they were ordered to clear the backlog of complaints by the end of August either by paying compensation or rejecting a complaint. People who have a complaint rejected can appeal to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

The FOS said a decline in the number of complaints it upheld in the period to 47 per cent from 53 per cent in the preceding six months reflected the uncertainty caused by the PPI legal review as it made cases harder to resolve.

Five firms received more than 10,000 complaints each and this group racked up more than 72,000 cases, just under half of the new complaints. In total, there were complaints against 157 financial firms, the FOS said.

Last week, City regulator the FSA revealed that the financial sector paid out £215m in compensation to victims of the PPI mis-selling scandal in the first half of the year.

Related topics:People