Firms’ complaints data casts doubt on ‘customer-centric’ culture

The latest data shows that, apart from PPI, the most complained-about products were current accounts, credit cards and motor insurance, with significant increases in complaints about the latter two categories. For an industry purporting to champion a customer-centric culture, a 60 per cent uphold rate for complaints indicates there is room for improvement, comments Denis O’Connor.

Denis O’Connoris a fellow of both the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales and the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment. He was a member of the British Bankers’ Association Money Laundering Committee from 2003-10 and a member of the Joint Money Laundering Steering Group’s board and editorial panel between 2010 and 2016. He has been a frequent speaker at industry conferences on financial crime issues, both in the United Kingdom and abroad.

The Financial Conduct Authority recentlypublished complaints data [1] submitted by regulated firms received from eligible complainants during the second half of 2018, as part of the regulator’s ongoing commitment to bring transparency to both customers and firms. The FCA believes that through the publication of the data customers can make more informed decisions about which firms to conduct business with, while the statistics allow firms to compare themselves against their peers in the same sector of the financial services industry.