MAKING MOANY

Complaining customers get £2billion compo from banks

CUSTOMERS have won nearly £2billion in compensation after making three million complaints to banks.

Most of the grievances – nearly 900,000 – came from those mis-sold PPI, netting £1.6billion in refunds. A further £300million was paid by banks and financial firms for other wrongdoings.

Financial Conduct Authority figures show three million complaints were logged from July to December last year, equivalent to 16,700 a day. The figures, up from two million for the first six months of 2016, are the first since the FCA introduced new rules requiring firms to register complaints on the day they are made. Barclays attracted the most gripes, with 438,200, followed by nearly 300,000 about bailedout Lloyds Bank. James Daley, of Fairer Finance, said: “Almost a decade after the financial crisis, nothing much has changed. The volume of complaints is astronomical. “Customers have come to expect very patchy service.”

YOU could put your money on the finance industry generating complaints, but three million in the second half of last year alone is the bankruptcy of customer care.

Mis-selling payment protection policies and other dodgy behaviour have hit confidence in banks and insurance companies.

The industry needs to take a long, hard look at itself and improve its conduct dramatically.

Because the equivalent of 16,700 complaints per day smacks of systemic failings rather than a few bad apples ripping off customers.