The Financial Conduct Authority has been criticised for displaying a lack of candour and empathy in the way it handles complaints.
In its annual report published yesterday (19 July) the Complaints Commissioner stated the FCA had taken a "significant step forward" in dealing with the complaints backlog he had highlighted last year, which no longer represented a 'systemic problem'.
But there remained some "attitudinal problems" which Antony Townsend, the commissioner, said the FCA should tackle.
He said these included an "unwillingness to admit error" and a "lack of candour when things have gone wrong".
Mr Townsend said: "It is incumbent on all public organisations, such as the FCA, to ensure they deal with people humanely, as a number of recent news stories have highlighted.
"Too much time is spent in constructing defences for past actions, rather than considering whether things might have been done better, and could be done better in future."
Mr Townsend also made reference to the complaints he had received about the FCA's register, which he found could be "impenetrable" to both consumers and regulated individuals.
In response to the criticisms raised by Mr Townsend, the FCA said: "In general, our approach is to be open with complainants and to admit our shortcomings. During the year, we upheld 12 per cent of the complaints made against the FCA, which is evidence of this.
"We will make clear our position if we feel strongly about a certain matter, but only if we feel the assertions made are inaccurate or misrepresentative. However, we do accept that we could seem defensive sometimes and we will work on how to communicate in a more effective and transparent way."
It agreed with the Commissioner there was a need to review how things might be done better in the future.
It said: "The lessons learned from complaints can be a powerful tool to understand what went wrong and how we can change for the better."
During 2017 to 2018 the Complaints Commissioner received 115 complaints about the FCA, compared with 105 in the previous year, of which 96 were concluded with a substantive response.
In 87 of these complaints, the commissioner upheld the FCA's decision and in eight of these the regulator's decision was not upheld while one case was partly upheld.
The commissioner attributed the increase in complaints reaching his office to the increase in the number of complaints being dealt with by the FCA.
Darren Cooke, a chartered financial planner at Red Circle Financial Planning, said: "The general impression is that the FCA doesn't admit when it's wrong. I am struggling to remember a time when the FCA has held its hands up and admitted it was wrong.
"This is despite the fact that they cannot be sued, which in itself is ridiculous."
damian.fantato@ft.com
