There were 161,649 new cases of complaints made by consumers about individual financial businesses during the second half of 2014, down 15 per cent from the first half of the year, according to data from the Financial Ombudsman Service (Fos).
Over the period from 1 July to 31 December 2014 the ombudsman decided 52 per cent of the cases in favour of the consumer, ranging from 4 per cent to 98 per cent across individual businesses.
Issues with payment protection insurance (PPI) accounted for 65 per cent of complaints made with a total of 104,877 new PPI complaints made during the six-month period.
Kim Barrett, independent financial adviser at Barretts Financial Solutions, said, “Some advisers will sell PPI as a tick-box scenario in order to protect themselves, possibly without fully understanding it. But if they don’t understand some of the quirks of PPI, how are clients supposed to understand it?”
Complaints about banking increased by 8 per cent and investment cases were up by 4 per cent. The total number of complaints excluding PPI fell slightly from 57,310 in the first half of 2014 to 56,771 in the second.
Lloyds Bank General Insurance Limited received the greatest number of total new cases received with 24,245 new cases overall, followed by Barclays Bank with 21,078, and Bank of Scotland with 19,706.
The most complaints for each sector were made to Prudential in the life and pensions sector, sesame for the advisory sector, UK Insurance Limited for general insurance excluding PPI, Bank of Scotland for mortgage and home finance, Lloyds Bank for PPI, and Barclays for both banking and credit and investments sectors.
Caroline Wayman, chief ombudsman at the Fos, said, “Although it’s good news that complaint numbers are starting to level off, we have seen a change in the nature of the PPI complaints people are asking us to resolve – which are becoming increasingly hard-fought and more complex.
“It will take time to rebuild people’s trust and confidence in the financial sector. And a first step towards this is for all businesses to show they’ve dealt with their customers’ complaints thoughtfully and with care. This is why we share what we see with the businesses to help them understand our approach, while at the same time keeping fairness at the heart of what we do.”
The data in the report covers financial businesses for which the Fos received at least 30 new cases and resolved at least 30 cases during the six-month period. Complaints relating to these businesses made up around 95 per cent of the total number of cases handled by the Fos.
