The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published its data on complaints made relating to the firms it regulates for the second half of 2019.
Monitoring this data is important for financial brands and the wider market. Understanding how many complaints are raised, which groups and firms are impacted and how quickly complaints are resolved can help firms to benchmark their performance.
The data shows a significant increase in the number of complaints from the first to the second half of 2019, going up from 4.29m to 6.02m.
This, however, doesn’t tell the whole story; the increase in complaints was mainly driven by a 75% increase in the number of complaints relating to PPI, due to the deadline to submit claims to firms by 29th August 2019.
Overall, PPI was by far the most complained about product, accounting for 62% of all complaints made in the period between 1st July and 31st December.
Aside from PPI, there was a 6% increase in complaints relating to other financial products and services in the second half of 2019.
The most complained about products, aside from PPI, were as follows:
- Current accounts (10% of all complaints)
- Credit cards (6% of all complaints)
- General insurance products (5% of all complaints)
The most complained about groups & firms
Digging deeper into the data, we can see the financial groups that had the highest number of new complaints opened in the period:
| Financial Group | Total Complaints Opened | % of Total |
| LLOYDS BANKING GROUP PLC | 1,664,292 | 28.13% |
| BARCLAYS PLC | 1,044,522 | 17.66% |
| BANCO SANTANDER SA | 469,266 | 7.93% |
| HSBC HOLDINGS PLC | 464,543 | 7.85% |
| THE ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND GROUP | 386,764 | 6.54% |
| AVIVA PLC | 158,530 | 2.68% |
| CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION | 114,994 | 1.94% |
| VIRGIN MONEY UK PLC | 111,930 | 1.89% |
| NATIONWIDE BUILDING SOCIETY | 109,210 | 1.85% |
| CENTRICA PLC | 100,618 | 1.70% |
Then, looking at the data in terms of the firms receiving the highest number of newly opened complaints:
| Financial Brand | Total Complaints Opened | % of Total |
| Barclays Bank UK PLC | 1,032,213 | 17.45% |
| Lloyds Bank PLC | 627,236 | 10.60% |
| Bank of Scotland plc | 564,714 | 9.55% |
| HSBC UK Bank Plc | 403,272 | 6.82% |
| MBNA Limited | 344,517 | 5.82% |
| Santander UK Plc | 320,571 | 5.42% |
| National Westminster Bank Plc | 268,556 | 4.54% |
| Santander Cards UK Limited | 147,340 | 2.49% |
| Aviva Insurance Limited | 130,554 | 2.21% |
| Capital One (Europe) plc | 114,994 | 1.94% |
Lloyds Banking Group tops the group list accounting for almost 30% of opened complaints. In terms of individual organisations, Barclays Bank tops the list with almost 18% of all complaints raised relating to specific firms.
Removing the PPI data
It’s worth looking at the data without taking into account the significant PPI element, so here’s the same information with the ‘insurance’ category of data removed.
Here are the most complaints raised by group with ‘insurance’ data removed:
| Financial Group | Total Complaints Opened | % of Total |
| BARCLAYS PLC | 243,765 | 17.61% |
| LLOYDS BANKING GROUP PLC | 236,352 | 17.07% |
| HSBC HOLDINGS PLC | 234,431 | 16.93% |
| THE ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND GROUP | 162,573 | 11.74% |
| BANCO SANTANDER SA | 123,411 | 8.91% |
| NATIONWIDE BUILDING SOCIETY | 52,257 | 3.77% |
| BANCO DE SABADELL SA | 45,100 | 3.26% |
| VIRGIN MONEY UK PLC | 25,116 | 1.81% |
| CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION | 23,539 | 1.70% |
| J SAINSBURY PLC | 19,550 | 1.41% |
Here are the most complaints raised by specific financial firm with ‘insurance’ data removed:
| Financial Group | Total Complaints Opened | % of Total |
| Barclays Bank UK PLC | 231,458 | 16.72% |
| HSBC UK Bank Plc | 218,100 | 15.75% |
| Santander UK Plc | 121,992 | 8.81% |
| National Westminster Bank Plc | 121,230 | 8.76% |
| Lloyds Bank PLC | 117,336 | 8.48% |
| Bank of Scotland plc | 100,254 | 7.24% |
| Nationwide Building Society | 51,382 | 3.71% |
| TSB Bank plc | 45,100 | 3.26% |
| Royal Bank of Scotland Plc, The | 36,944 | 2.67% |
| Capital One (Europe) plc | 23,539 | 1.70% |
With the ‘insurance’ category removed (therefore removing the PPI claims) we see that BANCO DE SABADELL SA and J SAINSBURY PLC enter the top-ten most complained about groups in positions seven and ten respectively.
Likewise, when looking at specific firms, we see that Nationwide Building Society, TSB Bank plc and Royal Bank of Scotland Plc enter the top-ten list of complaints in positions seven, eight and nine respectively.
Closing complaints within three days
The FCA data also provides detail on the percentage of complaints that were closed within three days of being opened. Below is a breakdown of the firms clocking up the highest number of complaints and the percentage they were able to close within three days:
| Financial Firm | # of Complaints | Closed within three days |
| Barclays Bank UK PLC | 1,032,213 | 32.40% |
| Lloyds Bank PLC | 627,236 | 12.90% |
| Bank of Scotland plc | 564,714 | 14.70% |
| HSBC UK Bank Plc | 403,272 | 56.40% |
| MBNA Limited | 344,517 | 4.30% |
| Santander UK Plc | 320,571 | 56.60% |
| National Westminster Bank Plc | 268,556 | 29.70% |
| Santander Cards UK Limited | 147,340 | 2.10% |
| Aviva Insurance Limited | 130,554 | 36.90% |
| Capital One (Europe) plc | 114,994 | 10.90% |
To look at this information in an alternative way, using the total number of complaints opened per firm alongside the percentage closed within three days, here’s the net number of complaints closed quickly:
| Firm | # of Complaints closed within three days |
| Barclays Bank UK PLC | 334,437 |
| HSBC UK Bank Plc | 227,445 |
| Santander UK Plc | 181,443 |
| Bank of Scotland plc | 83,013 |
| Lloyds Bank PLC | 80,913 |
| National Westminster Bank Plc | 79,761 |
| Aviva Insurance Limited | 48,174 |
| MBNA Limited | 14,814 |
| Capital One (Europe) plc | 12,534 |
| Santander Cards UK Limited | 3,094 |
Here we can clearly see that Santander Cards UK Limited has struggled to turn around complaints at the same rate as other firms. HSBC, on the other hand, received the fourth highest number of complaints but was successful in closing more than half of them within three days.
Also noteworthy is MBNA, which received the fifth highest number of complaints but struggled to close them quickly, closing only 4% within three days.
