State-backed Lloyds Banking Group was the subject of more than a quarter of new complaints received by the Financial Ombudsman Service, figures published on Tuesday show.
In the six months to the end of June, the ombudsman service, which settles disputes between consumers and financial services business, received more than 84,000 new complaints.
Of these, more than 22,000 were lodged about Lloyds Banking Group subsidiaries. Lloyds TSB accounted for 12,700, Bank of Scotland 6,200 and Black Horse, 2,100.
Most of these complaints were about the sale of general insurance products, such as payment protection insurance, but banking disputes were also high. Of the 2,100 disputes against Black Horse, 96 per cent were upheld in the consumers’ favour.
Lloyds said the vast majority of its 30m customers were happy with the service it provided, but conceded there were areas for improvement.
“Our relationship with our customers is at the heart of our business and we take all feedback very seriously,” it said.
“Like every organisation we know there are areas where we can improve and we’re working with our customers to do just that. We are pleased to have recorded progress in a number of key areas measured by FOS complaint data”.
Royal Bank of Scotland, which is majority-owned by the state, was subject to more than 6,500 new complaints.
Among other high street banks, Barclays was the subject of nearly 8,000 new disputes, more than half of them banking and credit-related. Santander, the Spanish-owned banking group that owns the former Abbey National and Alliance & Leicester, was subject to 4,800 new complaints.
Consumers can take complaints to the FOS after their bank, insurance company or investment firm has been given eight weeks to consider the dispute.
This is the third time the ombudsman has published specific data about the number of complaints it has received and resolved. In the six months to the end of June, the service received a total of 84,212 new complaints – a slight increase on the 82,136 cases received in the second half of 2009.
“The latest data show that some businesses are really committed to ensuring that complaints are handled well, and are used to inform and improve the service they offer their customers,” said Natalie Ceeney, chief executive and chief ombudsman.
“However, the complaints data also show there is still more that some businesses need to do to ensure that complaints are properly investigated and fairly resolved. The ombudsman is keen to continue to play its part and help businesses draw lessons from the complaints that we see, so disputes can be sorted out at the earliest opportunity.”
Reacting to the data, consumer groups said the results showed that too many companies were not trying to put their customers right.
“These results suggest that too many companies are not taking complaints seriously and are content to leave them to pursue problems with the ombudsman instead,” said Mike O’Connor, chief executive of Consumer Focus.
“The FOS should use the next set of figures to shift the balance of power to consumers by disclosing more information about which firms treat consumers well and which treat them with disdain. Consumers will then reward the good guys and punish the bad ones.”
The release of the ombudsman’s data follows the publication earlier this month by firms of their own complaints record books.
According to this data, Santander had received the highest number of new banking complaints in the six months to the end of June, or 216,000 disputes out of a total of 245,000 new complaints.
Lloyds Bank opened 175,00 banking complaints over the same period with one in 10 of these disputes upheld in the customer’s favour. In total the Lloyds Banking Group received 288,700 new complaints.
Firms are required to publish their complaints data every six months. However, some banks, insurers and other financial services firms have been accused of making it difficult for customers to find out how many complaints have been lodged against them.
The accusations emerged after a new rule requiring companies to publish how many complaints they received over a six-month period came into force at the end of August.
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