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Lloyds Banking Group tops table of complaints to Ombudsman

Written By:
Guest Author
Posted:
22/09/2022
Updated:
22/09/2022

Guest Author:
Rebecca Goodman

The Lloyds Banking Group received the highest number of new consumer complaints in the first half of the year, as recorded by the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).

It recorded 6,598 new cases across its banks including Lloyds Bank, Lloyds Insurance Limited, Black Horse, Bank of Scotland, Scottish Widows, MBNA, St Andrew’s Insurance, and Halifax.

As a group, Barclays had the second-highest number of new cases at 5,158. This figure is for all companies within the group including: Barclays Bank UK PLC, Clydesdale Financial Services Limited, Firstplus Financial Group Plc and Barclays Bank Plc.

It was followed by HSBC (3,703) Natwest (3,313) and Santander (2,619) banking groups.

These figures were for new cases from customers between 1 January and 30 June 2022 which the FOS received. They show the total number for each banking group.

However, Lloyds also has the highest number of companies within the group and more than any other high street bank, therefore, the figures  reflect the fact it has more customers than other banks or banking groups.

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A Lloyds spokesperson said: “The latest figures show the Ombudsman continues to agree with the majority of our decisions and despite the size of our organisation – which includes a number of different companies – we receive less than three complaints for every 1000 accounts we hold, amongst the lowest in the industry.

“We’re committed to getting things right first time and always working to deliver better outcomes for our customers.”

When looking at individual banks, Barclays Bank received the highest number of 4,387, followed by HSBC (3,422), Natwest (2,583), Lloyds (2,578), and Bank of Scotland (2,529).

The total number of new cases received was 72,978, a slight fall from the 73,136 received in the second half of 2021.

Of these 37% of these were upheld in favour of the consumer – the same level seen between July and December last year.

Complaints to challenger banks

The big high street banks featured heavily at the top of the latest complaints table but some smaller companies were also included.

Monzo received 838 complaints, Revolut 765, Paypal 708, and Starling 512.

There were also several loan providers included. Doorstep loan provider, Morses Club PLC received the highest number of complaints of 987, after the major UK banks.

Banking and credit most complained about sectors

The FOS separates its complaints data into the following sections: banking and credit, mortgages and home finance, general insurance and pure protection, payment protection insurance (PPI), investments, and decumulation life and pensions.

The majority of new complaints recorded fell into the banking and credit sector. There were a total of 44,200 new complaints received for this area.

Barclays received 85% (or 3,717) of its complaints about banking and credit while 90% (3,092) of HSBC’s complaints fell into this sector.

The Ombudsman revealed that businesses proactively resolved 4,242 complaints in this time period.