Today sees the publication of the Financial Ombudsmen Services (FOS) list of complaints against financial institutions for the first time, which aims to name and shame those companies who look after our money who are seen to be treating their clients most poorly.
Although the FOS looks after a range of finance companies, it is the banks which dominate the list, having the highest number of complaints.
The list names those companies who have received 30 or more client complaints to FOS in the first 6 months of 2009. Naturally, with the number of clients that the high street banks have, and the number of transactions they make, they’re going to pick up a lot of complaints along the way, whether correct or not, so it pays to look at more than just the number of complaints. Thankfully, there’s a more useful figure to give an idea of how well a bank treats its customers: the FOS list gives a figure for the number of upheld cases – where the FOS has ruled in the favour of the consumer.
Here’s a rundown of some of the most popular banks and building societies with their number of complaints and the percentage upheld, how does your bank compare?
| Bank | # complaints | % upheld |
|---|---|---|
| Abbey National | 2493 | 67% |
| Alliance & Leicester | 1786 | 66% |
| Bank of Scotland | 5804 | 52% |
| Barclays | 8283 | 71% |
| Egg | 912 | 88% |
| HSBC | 2177 | 60% |
| Lloyds TSB Bank | 6947 | 81% |
| Nationwide Building Society | 1149 | 41% |
| Northern Rock | 593 | 78% |
| Royal Bank of Scotland | 1812 | 71% |
The vast majority of complaints relate to banking and credit or general insurance, and the FOS agreed with around 60% of consumers’ complaints (which gives you a benchmark of how those above have performed).
View the full list at the FOS website.
