The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published its data on complaints made relating to the firms it regulates for the second half of 2019.

Monitoring this data is important for financial brands and the wider market. Understanding how many complaints are raised, which groups and firms are impacted and how quickly complaints are resolved can help firms to benchmark their performance.

The data shows a significant increase in the number of complaints from the first to the second half of 2019, going up from 4.29m to 6.02m.

This, however, doesn’t tell the whole story; the increase in complaints was mainly driven by a 75% increase in the number of complaints relating to PPI, due to the deadline to submit claims to firms by 29th August 2019.

Overall, PPI was by far the most complained about product, accounting for 62% of all complaints made in the period between 1st July and 31st December.

Aside from PPI, there was a 6% increase in complaints relating to other financial products and services in the second half of 2019.

The most complained about products, aside from PPI, were as follows:

  • Current accounts (10% of all complaints)
  • Credit cards (6% of all complaints)
  • General insurance products (5% of all complaints)

The most complained about groups & firms

Digging deeper into the data, we can see the financial groups that had the highest number of new complaints opened in the period:

Financial GroupTotal Complaints Opened% of Total
LLOYDS BANKING GROUP PLC1,664,29228.13%
BARCLAYS PLC1,044,52217.66%
BANCO SANTANDER SA469,2667.93%
HSBC HOLDINGS PLC464,5437.85%
THE ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND GROUP386,7646.54%
AVIVA PLC158,5302.68%
CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION114,9941.94%
VIRGIN MONEY UK PLC111,9301.89%
NATIONWIDE BUILDING SOCIETY109,2101.85%
CENTRICA PLC100,6181.70%

Then, looking at the data in terms of the firms receiving the highest number of newly opened complaints:

Financial BrandTotal Complaints Opened% of Total
Barclays Bank UK PLC1,032,21317.45%
Lloyds Bank PLC627,23610.60%
Bank of Scotland plc564,7149.55%
HSBC UK Bank Plc403,2726.82%
MBNA Limited344,5175.82%
Santander UK Plc320,5715.42%
National Westminster Bank Plc268,5564.54%
Santander Cards UK Limited147,3402.49%
Aviva Insurance Limited130,5542.21%
Capital One (Europe) plc114,9941.94%

Lloyds Banking Group tops the group list accounting for almost 30% of opened complaints. In terms of individual organisations, Barclays Bank tops the list with almost 18% of all complaints raised relating to specific firms.

Removing the PPI data

It’s worth looking at the data without taking into account the significant PPI element, so here’s the same information with the ‘insurance’ category of data removed.

Here are the most complaints raised by group with ‘insurance’ data removed:

Financial GroupTotal Complaints Opened% of Total
BARCLAYS PLC243,76517.61%
LLOYDS BANKING GROUP PLC236,35217.07%
HSBC HOLDINGS PLC234,43116.93%
THE ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND GROUP162,57311.74%
BANCO SANTANDER SA123,4118.91%
NATIONWIDE BUILDING SOCIETY52,2573.77%
BANCO DE SABADELL SA45,1003.26%
VIRGIN MONEY UK PLC25,1161.81%
CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION23,5391.70%
J SAINSBURY PLC19,5501.41%

Here are the most complaints raised by specific financial firm with ‘insurance’ data removed:

Financial GroupTotal Complaints Opened% of Total
Barclays Bank UK PLC231,45816.72%
HSBC UK Bank Plc218,10015.75%
Santander UK Plc121,9928.81%
National Westminster Bank Plc121,2308.76%
Lloyds Bank PLC117,3368.48%
Bank of Scotland plc100,2547.24%
Nationwide Building Society51,3823.71%
TSB Bank plc45,1003.26%
Royal Bank of Scotland Plc, The36,9442.67%
Capital One (Europe) plc23,5391.70%

With the ‘insurance’ category removed (therefore removing the PPI claims) we see that BANCO DE SABADELL SA and J SAINSBURY PLC enter the top-ten most complained about groups in positions seven and ten respectively.

Likewise, when looking at specific firms, we see that Nationwide Building Society, TSB Bank plc and Royal Bank of Scotland Plc enter the top-ten list of complaints in positions seven, eight and nine respectively.

Closing complaints within three days

The FCA data also provides detail on the percentage of complaints that were closed within three days of being opened. Below is a breakdown of the firms clocking up the highest number of complaints and the percentage they were able to close within three days:

Financial Firm# of ComplaintsClosed within three days
Barclays Bank UK PLC1,032,21332.40%
Lloyds Bank PLC627,23612.90%
Bank of Scotland plc564,71414.70%
HSBC UK Bank Plc403,27256.40%
MBNA Limited344,5174.30%
Santander UK Plc320,57156.60%
National Westminster Bank Plc268,55629.70%
Santander Cards UK Limited147,3402.10%
Aviva Insurance Limited130,55436.90%
Capital One (Europe) plc114,99410.90%

To look at this information in an alternative way, using the total number of complaints opened per firm alongside the percentage closed within three days, here’s the net number of complaints closed quickly:

Firm# of Complaints closed within three days
Barclays Bank UK PLC334,437
HSBC UK Bank Plc227,445
Santander UK Plc181,443
Bank of Scotland plc83,013
Lloyds Bank PLC80,913
National Westminster Bank Plc79,761
Aviva Insurance Limited48,174
MBNA Limited14,814
Capital One (Europe) plc12,534
Santander Cards UK Limited3,094

Here we can clearly see that Santander Cards UK Limited has struggled to turn around complaints at the same rate as other firms. HSBC, on the other hand, received the fourth highest number of complaints but was successful in closing more than half of them within three days.

Also noteworthy is MBNA, which received the fifth highest number of complaints but struggled to close them quickly, closing only 4% within three days.

The full data can be accessed on the FCA website.

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