Financial services firms received 2.05m complaints in the first half of 2016, a 2.6% drop in the number reported between July and December 2015, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has revealed
The number dropped to 1.12m when PPI complaints were excluded from the total, representing a 4.3% drop. This meant 45% of all complaints related to PPI.
These results also do not feature complaints against firms only authorised to carry out consumer related activities. This data will not be published until after March 2017, when the FCA says it will have authorised all consumer credit firms.
Despite this, a number of companies which offer consumer credit were included in the data released for this period. This included a number of captives: Volkswagen Financial Services UK received 4,262 complaints; BMW Financial Services (GB) received 1,516 complaints; PSA finance UK received 1,355 complaints; RCI Financial Services received 733 complaints; GMAC UK received 697 complaints and FCA Automotive Services received 509 complaints.
Overall, the companies which received the most complaints in the period were:
- Barclays Bank Plc – 287,463 (an increase of 3% since the second half of 2015)
- Lloyds Bank PLC – 213,163 (a decrease of 7% since the second half of 2015)
- Bank of Scotland plc – 173,646 (a decrease of 5% since the second half of 2015)
- HSBC Bank Plc – 124,891 (an increase of 3% since the second half of 2015)
- National Westminster Bank Plc – 121,197 (a decrease of 10% since the second half of 2015)
All figures are likely to increase in the future. H1 2016 statistics were reported using a previous measure, whereby a firm was not required to report complaints which were resolved by the end of the following day. As of 30 June 2016, however, companies have to report all complaints data. This will be reflected in the H2 statistics, which are due to be published in 2016.
The FCA also said it would also be providing additional contextualisation information in the future.
