PPI continues to haunt UK banks. Complaints about PPI rose by 40% to 1.55 million in the second half of 2017, the highest level of complaints about PPI for more than four years.
Overall, a total of 3.76 million complaints were received in the six months to end 2017, up 13% year-on-year.
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In January, firms paid out £416m in PPI compensation, the highest figure since March 2016. Total compensation payments since January 2011 is now £30bn.
Only yesterday, Clydesdale Bank said that it was setting aside a further £350m for PPI claims. Clydesdale said that it received to 59,000 claimes in the six months to end March and expected to receive another 110,000 by the complaints deadline set for August 2019.
Nationwide: take a bow
Of the major UK banks and building societies, Nationwide attracted the least complaints in H217 with only 1.44 complaints per 100,000 accounts for banking and credit cards.
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By GlobalDataSkipton Building Society and Yorkshire also scored well with only 1.57 and 1.92 complaints per 100,000 respectively.
HSBC attracts most complaints
At the other end of the scale, HSBC is the most complained about major retail banking brand with 6.88 complaints per 100,000 banking and credit card accounts, just ahead of RBS with 6.69 and Barclays with 6.51.
Of the other major brands, Santander (5.26) and Lloyds (5.23) continue to attract more complaints per 100,000 accounts than the challenger brands, such as TSB (4.35), Metro Bank (4.18).
Cooperative Bank and Virgin Money on only 3.09 and 2.68 respectively performed strongly.
RBS’ private banking brand, Coutts, is among the worst overall performers (10.22); sister RBS brands NatWest and Ulster Bank on 5.48 and 4.25 respectively fared better.
Scope for banks to improve complaints handling
The latest FCA complaints data suggests that banks’ internal complaints handling processes remain a work in progress.
A whopping 7 in 10 complaints (70.1%) of banking and cards customer complaints against Lloyds were upheld by the FCA. Sister brand Bank of Scotland (60.2%) also scored poorly by this measure.
By contrast, less than one-half of all complaints against Bank of Ireland UK (43.0%), Allied Irish Banks UK (43.4%), Santander (43.5%) Tesco (49.0%) and Metro Bank (49.3%) were upheld.
Christopher Woolard, Executive Director of Strategy and Competition, FCA 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 credit cards with 314,586 complaints.
