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Complaints about payment protection insurance (PPI) drove a 13% increase in the number of complaints made to financial services firms in the second half of 2017, according to figures published today by the FCA.
During the second half of 2017 a total of 3.76 million complaints were received, an increase of 427,032 on the first half of the year. Complaints about PPI rose by 40% to 1.55 million, the highest level of complaints about PPI for more than four years.
In January 2018 firms paid out £415.8m in redress to customers who complained about payment protection insurance (PPI). This is the highest figure since March 2016 and takes the amount paid since January 2011 to £30bn.
Christopher Woolard, Executive Director of Strategy and Competition said:
“Having set a deadline for PPI complaints, we are encouraging consumers to decide whether they want to claim, and if they do, to make their complaint as soon as possible, as many already have.
“We are continuing to monitor and challenge all firms to ensure they maintain the expected standards and are delivering on their commitments to make it easy for people to complain about PPI.
“When PPI is taken out of the mix, the numbers of complaints firms are receiving has remained stable. Firms should be doing all they can to reduce complaints and ensure they are treating customers fairly.”
Excluding PPI the number of complaints received by firms was 2.21million, around 13,000 fewer than the previous six months.
After PPI, the next most complained about products are current accounts, with 509,047 complaints and then credit cards with 314,586 complaints. Further firm-level data are available on the FCA’s downloadable tables.
Notes to editors
- Firm specific complaints data
- Aggregate commentary
- The FCA collates and publishes complaints data every six months, alongside aggregated figures covering the whole industry. The data, which can be found on the FCA website, are presented in two different formats: aggregate data showing the overall number of complaints made, and firm-specific data showing figures for individual firms reporting 500 or more opened complaints.
- In July 2015, the FCA published new rules on changes to its complaint handling rules. The reforms have improved the complaints systems and procedures, making them less bureaucratic for firms, easier for consumers and has provided us with improved intelligence on complaints.
- Our analysis is based on the data supplied to us by firms in the new return and as such may be subject to possible reporting errors as firms get used to submitting the new data to us. We have carried out checks to seek to identify and correct errors where we are able to.
- Redress figures are collected from the largest firms marking up 95% of complaints made about PPI.
- On 1 April 2013, the FCA became responsible for the conduct supervision of all regulated financial firms and the prudential supervision of those not supervised by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA).
- The FCA has an overarching strategic objective of ensuring the relevant markets function well. To support this it has three operational objectives: to secure an appropriate degree of protection for consumers; to protect and enhance the integrity of the UK financial system; and to promote effective competition in the interests of consumers.
- Find out more information about the FCA.
