Banking institutions leading customer complaints league table
Greatest banks get 1000’s of calls and emails a day from disgruntled consumers 
Photograph: Bloomberg Information
Customers created 2.5 million complaints towards economic businesses in the second half of 2013, with the largest banks receiving 1000’s of calls and emails a day from disgruntled consumers.
Barclays topped the checklist, racking up 309,494 new complaints more than the 6-month time period, which equates to 1,695 a day. Lloyds Bank came second, obtaining 256,656 complaints, although Bank of Scotland and Nationwide Westminster also feature in the best five complained-about companies.
But complaints about economic companies on the entire have fallen by 15pc, figures from the Financial Perform Authority (FCA) demonstrate. In the first half of 2012 a total of 2.9 million complaints were made.
Complaints about Barclays fell by 17pc, Lloyds Bank posted a small 1pc increase, while Financial institution of Scotland and NatWest both reported decreases, of 18pc and 5pc respectively.
The reason for the fall is a hefty decline in the quantity of complaints about the mis-selling of payment safety insurance coverage (PPI). A complete of one.four million PPI complaints had been manufactured, a fall of 22pc on the previous six months. But PPI nonetheless accounted for 56pc of all complaints.
The amount of complaints about banking items this kind of as existing accounts, savings accounts and credit score cards also declined, by 3pc to 558,991, even though present accounts themselves actually attracted more complaints, with the number increasing by 8pc.
Outdoors the banking sector, Hargreaves Lansdown was the most complained-about investment company, with three,171 complaints. It marked a six-fold rise on the very first half of the yr and coincided with the company’s technical failure for the duration of the flotation of the Royal Mail. The next most complained about investment firm was Barclays Stockbrokers with one,799 consumers raising troubles.
Martin Wheatley, chief executive of the FCA, stated: “No firm desires to prime this certain record and they all need to be striving to guarantee that buyers are becoming handled relatively and not given result in to complain. This [the fall in all round complaint numbers] is an indication that firms look to be putting buyers at the heart of their organization. Even so, there is plainly much more for us all to do to show shoppers their interests come 1st.”
The regulator does not modify its figures to get into account that the banks have far far more consumers than other financial firms. This is why banking institutions have a tendency to dominate the complaints league table.
The FCA calls for companies that attract more than 500 complaints in any 6-month period to publish this information on their internet sites. The regulator then collates the info and publishes it each and every spring and autumn.
Eric Leenders, executive director of retail banking at the British Bankers’ Association, stated: “Today’s FCA figures nowadays present that client complaints fell final 12 months, with these to banking institutions down nearly 25pc in just twelve months.
“Banks proceed to increase their merchandise and solutions and as the regulator says today firms are putting buyers at the heart of their companies. Banking institutions are determined that there will be no repeat of any of the poor practices which induced mis-selling in the past.
“The market continues to work with the FCA and the Ombudsman to boost complaints managing for customers.”
In response to the figures Ashok Vaswani, of Barclays, said: “Any reduction in the quantity of complaints made by our buyers is welcome news, so to see our figures fall is encouraging. However, we recognise that we still have a way to go, even 1 complaint is a single as well numerous.”
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