It’s that time of year again, when the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS)
names and shames the firms and institutions that received the highest number of new complaints over the previous six months.
Once more, it’s the banks that take the top five spots, while financial adviser network Sesame remained the most complained about intermediary financial firm, despite its complaints falling by 33%. Indeed, financial advisers in general saw a drop in complaints, according to the data.
With this mixed bag of results, financial commentators have had plenty to talk about.
Facing factsCharles Walmsley focuses on the cold hard statistics in his report for
CityWire’s
New Model Adviser. Looking at investments complaints in particular, “Lloyds topped the list with 233 complaints, with a further 155 levied against Bank of Scotland,” he says. He also lists the number of investment complaints received by Barclays (183), HSBC (143), NatWest (127) and Santander UK (120).
164,347
The number of new cases the FOS took on in the second half of 2015Speaking more generally, Walmsley points out that most of the complaints related to missold payment protection insurance (PPI), but explains that “the seven main high street banks also topped the invest[ments] complaints list”.
However, Walmsley highlights that the FOS took on a total of 164,347 new cases in the second half of 2015. This is a 6% decrease on the previous six months, so perhaps it’s not all bad news.
New Model Adviser report
A more even keelIt certainly isn’t bad news for financial adviser firms, which collectively saw a
drop of 22% in the number of complaints levelled at them from 1 July to 31 December 2015.
Carmen Reichman focuses on this more positive angle in her report for
Professional Adviser. She lists Sesame, Openwork, St James's Place, and Positive Solutions as all posting fewer complaints than in the previous six months. Conceding that Sesame remains the most complained about firm, racking up 116 complaints over six months, she points out that it has managed to slash this figure from 172 in the period before.
The award for the largest fall in complaints goes to Hong Leong Asset Management, Reichman says, which almost halved its complaints from 60 to 31: “Year-on-year complaints about the firm were down 47%.”
Reichman goes on to share the views of Caroline Wayman, Chief Ombudsman, who says that the eight years since the FOS began its complaints study have been highly volatile for the financial sector. “Though it still makes sense to plan for uncertainty and change ahead, the signs are that complaints are now broadly levelling off as we move onto a more even keel in the coming year.
“I believe it's important that we continue to find new ways to work, so we can resolve complaints quickly while sharing our knowledge so businesses can avoid the ‘big claims issues' of the past.”
Professional Adviser view
Pesky PPIMoving away from a focus on advisory firms,
The Telegraph’s Marion Dakers gets to the heart of what the majority of customer gripes were about – missold PPI.
New complaints about PPI reached 92,000 in the six months from July, Dakers says, comprising 56% of all complaints in the study. The ombudsman has had to take on more than 2,000 extra staff to cope with the huge rise.
But Dakers notes that this PPI peak will likely taper off soon: “The banks’ £22bn PPI redress scheme is heading towards a conclusion, with compensation payments starting to level off and the Financial Conduct Authority weighing up whether to impose a deadline for all new claims in 2018.”
Banks are blaming fees charged by third-party claims companies for fuelling the rise in claims for recompense, which Dakers says has led the Ministry of Justice to consider a crackdown on these companies. Will this stem the flow of PPI grievances? We’ll have to wait another six months to find out.
The Telegraph article
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