Santander tops banking complaints table

The Financial Conduct Authority, the regulator that has taken over from the Financial Services Authority, has released figures showing that there were 3,422,384 complaints across the whole financial services industry for the second half of 2012, an increase of one per cent on the first half of 2012. The top three complained about firms, in terms of the number of complaints opened in the second half of 2012, were: Barclays Bank, Lloyds TSB and Bank of Scotland. In terms of banking, Santander topped the complaints table with 125,451 complaints, followed by Barclays Bank with 118,031. PPI complaints alone rose by 5% to 2,170,537 and accounted for 63% of all complaints. The total amount of redress paid in the second half of 2012 was £2,946 million, a decrease from £3,169 million in the first half of the year. Martin Wheatley, FCA chief executive, said: “Greater transparency drives greater competition, and the publication of the complaints data lays bare the track record of the UK's financial institutions when it comes to resolving customer conflicts. The FCA requires firms with more than 500 complaints opened in a reporting period to publish this data on their websites.” April 19, 2013