Member Article

Surge in financial complaints

COMPLAINTS to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) rose by 15% in the second half of 2010 compared with the first half of the year, new figures have revealed.

The UK’s largest bank, Lloyds Banking Group, topped the complaints list while the figures, which also covered insurance and investment firms, showed that the ombudsman received 97,237 new queries in total.

The FOS upheld 53% of complaints in favour of consumers in the second half of 2010, up from 44% in the previous six months.

That increased success rate for complainants was identical to the rate recorded in the second half of 2009.

The complaints the FOS dealt with were those that customers pursued after receiving an unsatisfactory response from their bank in the first instance.

Separately, the UK’s banks have revealed that they are still being deluged with hundreds of thousands of fresh complaints from their customers.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .