Figures from the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) have
today revealed a 26% increase in PPI complaints during the first half of 2013,
compared with the previous six months. The ombudsman received a record high of
266,228 PPI complaints equating to 86% of all new complaints made to the FOS
during the period.
However, it is not just the credence of consumer complaints
which have today made the headlines, the uphold rate of complaints against select
banks have proved equally as newsworthy. The FOS today revealed that some 90%
of complaints against Lloyds TSB were upheld by the ombudsman in favour of the
customer, which in contrast to the likes of Nationwide, with an uphold rate of
just 7%, once again raises serious questions over Lloyds TSB’s complaints
handling procedure.
Martin Dodd, Lloyds Banking Group’s customer service
director has argued, “The group continues to proactively manage the issue of
PPI complaints in order that customers can receive redress if they have been
mis-sold…this is an on-going process and we will continue to review all claims
in an in-depth manner that produces fair outcomes for customers”
While Lloyds have defended their complaints handling, the
figures are of course a concern to consumers, the ombudsman and Claims
Management Companies acting on behalf of customers. Worryingly for these
parties, it is not only Lloyds who have underperformed in this area, the
overall uphold rate for all businesses recorded in the FOS’s PPI complaints
data equated to 75%.
Executive director at consumer group Which?, Richard Lloyd
responded to the findings stating, “The shockingly high uphold rates on PPI
claims exposes just how shoddy the complaints handling is at some of the major
high street banks. Despite their claims, banks are failing to clean up their
act. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) must ensure all banks are handling
complaints to a much higher standard”. The FCA have since announced that they
will undertake a review of the complaints handling and management in major UK
banks and firms, in hopes to eradicate the poor standard of complaints handling
exposed today by the FOS.
As a CMC specialising in PPI, a much needed review of
complaints handling across the industry is of course welcomed, however we
cannot ignore the fact that banks are rejecting thousands of customer’s claims,
only to be overturned by the FOS, making the claims process unnecessarily
lengthy and often frustrating. The PPI scandal has created a bill of more than
£18 billion for UK banks, and as complaints figures at the FOS reached a record
high in the first half of this year, we can only anticipate that there is still
more in store for the mis-selling debacle.
