The FSA says it is taking “tough action” after finding poor standards of complaint handling at five banks.
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The regulator says five banks are undertaking major changes to the way they deal with complaints and two of the five banks have been referred to its enforcement division for further investigation.
The FSA says its review looked at several banking groups responsible for over 70 per cent of the complaints firms receive and report to the regulator and over 60 per cent of those resolved by the Financial Ombudsman Service.
The latest FOS complaints figures, published in February, showed a big increase in the number of new complaints received against the large banking groups. Lloyds received 20,190 complaints across all its brands while Barclays received 10,892 and RBS received 7098 complaints. Seven hundred new Barclays Bank complaints related to investments, the highest number of investment complaints received by any institution.
As a result of the FSA review, five banks have either put in place or extended the scope of major changes to their complaint handling processes.The regulator will be doing follow up work later this year to see if standards have improved and may change elements of its DISP rulebook, which will be consulted on later this year.
