Hargreaves Lansdown, online investment broker and advice firm, received more than 1,000 complaints in the last six months of 2016.
Data released by the Financial Conduct Authority today showed that the Bristol-based company received 1,023 complaints.
Most of these – 888 – were about investments while 135 were about decumulation and pensions.
Of the investment complaints, 41 per cent were upheld while this was the case for 36 per cent of pension and decumulation complaints.
According to the FCA data, Hargreaves, which has nearly 900,000 clients, received 0.5 complaints per 1,000 pension, decumulation and investment accounts.
Hargreaves Lansdown stated the complaints were not related to its advice business but its execution-only services.
The FCA list – which only includes firms receiving 500 complaints or more – reported advice network Sesame received 596 complaints in the final six months of last year.
Of these, 231 were about investments while 204 were about insurance and pure protection.
Just 18 per cent of Sesame’s insurance complaints were upheld while this was the case with 35 per cent of its investment complaints.
A spokesman for Hargreaves Lansdown said: “We work hard to deliver excellent services to our clients and it's always disappointing when we fall short of their and our expectations and standards.
“To put this number in context Hargreaves Lansdown is the biggest Isa, Sipp, Junior Isa, Lifetime Isa and retail stock broker in the UK, with 876,000 clients and the number of complaints we receive is less than 0.1 per cent of the transactions we complete.”
This is the first batch of complaints data published under the FCA’s new rules which mean firms have more time to resolve complaints informally but they must send all their complaints data to the regulator.
This has led to the overall number of complaints increasing to 3.04m but means it isn’t directly comparable to the data from previous years.
Christopher Woolard, the FCA’s executive director of strategy and competition, said: “These data will provide us with improved intelligence on complaints including new detailed data to show where industry is potentially failing consumers at product level.”
Under the new rules firms now have three days to resolve complaints informally instead of just one business day.
The data showed 43 per cent of complaints were resolved within this period but this rises to 63 per cent if payment protection insurance is excluded.
Overall 60 per cent of complaints were upheld.
Of the providers – excluding the big four banks which all occupied the top four positions – those which received the largest number of complaints were Santander with 151,396, Aviva with 64,112 and Nationwide with 42,188.
Legal & General received 10,623 complaints, Royal London received 6,318, Standard Life received 1,752, Old Mutual Wealth’s various arms received 1,742 collectively and Cofunds received 557.
Barclays received the most complaints, with 438,237.
damian.fantato@ft.com
This article has been amended since publication to clarify Hargreaves Lansdown's status and the context of the complaints.
