Complaints to the FCA in the second half of 2013 dropped 15 per cent from the first half of the year. The regulator received 2,479,029 complaints against financial services companies, down from 2,911,154 in the first six months of 2013.
In life and pensions, Prudential received the most complaints, and in the mortgage and equity release category, the Bank of Scotland was the most complained about firm, with 71 per cent of its 15,075 complaints upheld.
Only one advice firm, adviser network Sesame, was included in the data after receiving 1,256 complaints in six months, with 22 per cent upheld.
The most complained about firm in the investment category was Hargreaves Lansdown, which received 3,173, although it only saw 4 per cent of those complaints upheld. In second place with considerably fewer complaints was Barclays Stockbrokers with 1,799 complaints, of which the FCA upheld more than half.
The figures, however, cannot be taken in isolation. The data for Hargreaves Lansdown from the second half of 2013 looks much less compelling when seen in context. The company did not feature at all in the figures from the same period in 2012. Although it saw a 500 per cent increase in complaints during the second half of 2013, in the second half of 2012 it did not receive the minimum 500 complaints required to be included.
Danny Cox, head of financial planning at Hargreaves Lansdown, said the figures were not indicative of the firm’s usual standards. “The majority of complaints relate specifically to the Royal Mail flotation last October. The demand for Royal Mail shares was off the scale with 118,000 clients purchasing Royal Mail shares through Hargreaves Lansdown,” he said.
“Complaints relating to Royal Mail covered a wide range of issues including complaints on the number of shares clients received, how shares were allocated and other matters. Excluding complaints about the Royal Mail flotation, complaints remained very low, at the same level as in the first half of 2013, representing less than 0.1 per cent of the 600,000 clients who use Hargreaves Lansdown.”
bethany.rutter@ft.com
