FOS reports 18% rise in consumer complaints

by Gill Montia

Story link: FOS reports 18% rise in consumer complaints

The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has released its six-monthly data on consumer complaints against the UK’s banks, insurance companies and investment firms.

Between 1st July and 31st December 2009, the watchdog received 82,136 new complaints – an increase of 18% on the 69,841 cases presented in the previous six months.

Eighty-eight per cent of new cases related to 155 financial firms (out of more than 100,000 businesses covered by the Ombudsman) and the Service upheld an average of 53% of complaints, compared to 59% in the first half of the year.

Five financial services groups continued to have more than 3,000 new complaints each: Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, RBS and Santander (previously Abbey).

While it should be remembered that the number of new complaints against each business is likely to be affected by its size, experts in the field are unable to agree how the volume of complaints against individual groups should be taken into account when making a comparison.

The fact that Lloyds TSB had more complaints about its insurance business than its banking operations illustrates the point.

Interim chief Ombudsman, David Thomas, sums up: “While the number of cases referred by consumers to the Ombudsman has continued to increase substantially, it’s encouraging to see that some businesses are committed to handling complaints better.”

A full breakdown of the data is available on the FOS website.