Financial services complaints fall by 500,000 in six months as Barclays receives over 370,000
Consumer complaints to the financial conduct authority (FCA) have dropped by 500,000 between the second half of 2012 and the first half of 2013.
Ian McConnell, financial services partner at PwC, says that the fall is "encouraging" and shows "that the issues faced by the financial services industry are being dealt with."
McConnell says the numbers "would suggest that the back of the PPI issue has been broken and is now on a downward trend with banks getting through complaints more efficiently."
Most complained about firms in the first half
| Complaints opened | Fall in complaints | Percentage closed in eight weeks | Percentage closed upheld by the firm | |
| Barclays | 370,733 | 11 per cent | 90 | 62 |
| Lloyds TSB | 253,735 | 27 per cent | 90 | 62 |
| MBNA | 237,103 | 12 per cent | 93 | 36 |
| Bank of Scotland | 222,249 | 34 per cent | 97 | 45 |
| Santander UK | 198,736 | 16 per cent | 83 | 43 |
Most complained about products between January and June 2013
| Complaints opened | Percentage of new complaints | |
| Payment protection insurance (PPI) | 1,786,626 | 61 |
| Other general insurance | 313,860 | 11 |
| Current accounts | 280,711 | 10 |
| Credit cards | 164,134 | 6 |
| Savings (including cash ISAs) and other banking products | 97,733 | 3 |
2.9m complaints were made in the first half of 2013, compared with 3.4m complaints made by firms in the previous six months. 51 per cent of the complaints made in the first half of 2013 were upheld, with £2.55bn of redress paid to consumers.
92 per cent of those complaints were closed in eight weeks, the highest percentage since the data was first published in 2006.
Martin Wheatley, the chief executive of the FCA, said that "publishing complaints data is a powerful tool that helps encourage competition between firms to improve their service to customers, and help consumers assess their relationships with banks and other providers."