Another embarrassing blow for Barclays as the latest Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) complaint figures are released. However, Santander is the surprise, ranking highly in complaints but also in a recent banking customer satisfaction survey. Is its secret as easy as 123, asks Anna Milne

FCA complaints data for financial services firms between 1 January and 30 June 2014

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Top five most complained about financial services firms

  • Barclays – 278,426 (a decrease of 10% since H2 2013)
  • Bank of Scotland – 265,640 (an increase of 46% since H2 2013)
  • Lloyds Bank – 264,115 (an increase of 3% since H2 2013)
  • Nat West – 140,342 (a decrease of 20% since H2 2013)
  • Santander – 135,611 (a decrease of 13% since H2 2013)

Barclays uphold rate was 71%, amounting to 197,682 complaints; Bank of Scotland had a similar 70%, amounting to 185,948 and Lloyds 76% upheld complaints, amounting to 200,727. So, in actual fact, Lloyds tops the poll with the number of verified complaints.

Top five number of complaints for ‘banking’ products

  • Santander – 91,158
  • Barclays – 88,792
  • HSBC – 65,865
  • Nat West – 62,175
  • Lloyds Bank- 42,245

Somewhat surprisingly, Santander and Barclays, both with very popular banking products, in the 123 account and the Pingit app, come out top here. Complaints as a percentage of number of customers per product complained about would present a different picture.

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Top five number of complaints for insurance and protection products, including PPI

  • Lloyds Bank – 219,306
  • Bank of Scotland – 205,526
  • Barclays Bank – 180,112
  • MBNA – 107,481
  • Nat West – 72,800

PPI generated the most complaints, with 1.24m complaints, representing 52% of all complaints and 78% of insurance and protection complaints. Banks and building societies were responsible for 66% of all financial services complaints.
According to the FCA, complaints against financial services firms dropped 5% since the previous half year.

H1 2013

  • Santander – 120,914, 36% upheld, (net 43,529)
  • Barclays – 78,330, 44% upheld (34,465 net)
  • HSBC – 57,924, 33% upheld (19,114 net)

In Money Saving Expert’s latest high street bank customer satisfaction survey, Barclays came last- so that figures- and most of the other FCA complaints results also correlate with customer satisfaction results. Only Santander poses something of an anomaly, coming second in the satisfaction polls while putting in a dire performance in FCA’s tables. The Spanish owned bank must be pretty good at appeasing complainers because it also does well in the switching stakes, pulling in more joiners than customers it loses (according to TNS statistics since the introduction of the UK’s account switching guarantee). Perhaps Santander pays off complainers by switching them to its 123 account.

 

Current account service rating, August 2014(Results and ranking from February 2014 in brackets)
RANK PROVIDER GREAT % OK % POOR %
1 (1) First Direct 92 (92) 6 (6) 2 (2)
2 (4) Santander 72 (64) 22 (28) 6 (8)
3 (N/A) Smile 72 (N/A) 22 (N/A) 7 (N/A)
4 (3) Nationwide 69 (67) 25 (26) 6 (7)
5 (N/A) Co-op 70 (N/A) 23 (N/A) 7 (N/A)
6 (5) Halifax 55 (45) 36 (43) 9 (12)
7 (12) TSB 52 (37) 36 (43) 12 (20)
8 (9) Bank of Scotland 49 (40) 39 (44) 12 (16)
9 (N/A) Yorkshire Bank 45 (N/A) 45 (N/A) 12 (N/A)
10 (7) Lloyds Bank 47 (45) 40 (40) 13 (15)
11 (N/A) RBS 46 (N/A) 37 (N/A) 17 (N/A)
12 (8) HSBC 42 (42) 43 (43) 15 (15)
13 (N/A) NatWest 38 (N/A) 46 (N/A) 15 (N/A)
14 (6) Barclays 38 (46) 36 (40) 26 (14)

Results may not add up to 100% due to rounding. 7,875 votes in total – banks with fewer than 100 votes ignored