In total the FCA recorded 3.4 million complaints in the six months to the end of 2012, an increase of 1% on the first half.
Drilling down into products, Santander (2,236), Barclays (2,151), Lloyds (2,009), HSBC (1,695) and Bank of Scotland (1,659) were the firms to receive the most investment complaints, although the FCA emphasised firms with the largest numbers of customers will often have the largest number of complaints.
See breakdown of complaints data here.
Investment complaints in general decreased in the second half of the year, compared with the first, to 41,198 from 43,481. Advice-related complaints were up from 2.1 million in the first six months to 2.2 million in the latter, however.
Despite the reduction in number, redress for investment-related grievances was up 22% half-on-half from £49m to £60m. The FCA reported a fall in overall redress, however, from £3.1bn in the first half to £2.9bn in the second.
Mystery shopping will be used again
In February the FSA (now FCA) revealed it had conducted a mystery shopping exercise into high street investment advice.
During its assessment of six major firms, the FSA found that in 11% of cases advice was unsuitable for the customer, while in a further 15% of cases the adviser had not gathered enough information to make sure their advice was suitable.
The FSA warned mystery shopping was an example of the more intrusive approach that would be used by the FCA upon its launch earlier this month.
Read the five main advice flaws identified by the FSA and how you can fix them.
On the complaints data, Martin Wheatley FCA chief executive, said: “Greater transparency drives greater competition, and the publication of the complaints data lays bare the track record of the UK’s financial institutions when it comes to resolving customer conflicts.
“When I meet with the bosses of the financial institutions they frequently tell me that they don’t want to be at the top of the table, which means they strive to improve both their sales and complaints handling processes. Not only does our data help consumers compare and contrast their current bank or lender, but it also boosts competition among firms too.”
