One complaint about the big banks every 12 seconds

BRITAIN’S biggest banks were the subject of almost 2.5million complaints last year.

Customers made one complaint every 12 seconds about Lloyds, RBS, Barclays, Santander and HSBC in 2011 as they bombarded the lenders with letters and emails about insurance mis-selling and poor service.

Customers of the big five made 1.37million complaints between July and December 2011, figures revealed last night.

This is a 26 per cent rise on the 1.08million the same banks received in the previous six months. The majority relate to payment protection insurance (PPI), which was mis-sold alongside loans, credit cards and mortgages.

Separate figures released yesterday by the Financial Ombudsman Service, which settles disputes between banks and consumers, reveal i t received 106,193 new complaints in the last six months of 2011.

All of these customers would have had their original complaint rejected by the banks, and then turned to the ombudsman for independent help.

The ombudsman generally upheld more than seven i n every ten complaints, suggesting banks have been guilty of fobbing off many thousands of people with legitimate grievances.

Lloyds topped the list of complaints to the FOS with 20,310, ahead of Barclays at 12,273, MBNA at 9,903, Rbs/natwest at 6,553, Santander at 6,202, HSBC at 6,190, and Capital One at 5,375.

Some 87 per cent of complaints against Lloyds TSB were upheld, compared with Barclays (84 per cent), MBNA (99 per cent), RBS (93 per cent), Santander (55 per cent), HSBC (80 per cent) and Capital One (11 per cent). According to figures lodged with City watchdog the Financial Services Authority, state-backed giant Lloyds Banking Group, which includes Halifax and Bank of Scotland, saw a 40 per cent increase in the number of complaints made in the second half of last year. Between January and June, 349,988 people complained, but this soared to 493,285 in the last six months of 2011. For every 1,000 bank accounts, 1.5 people complained.

All banks must report their complaints – defined as a problem that is not resolved within 48 hours – every six months to the FSA.

Peter Vicary-smith, chief executive of consumer group Which?, said: ‘This data is further evidence that some banks are systematically failing to treat their customers fairly when things go wrong.

‘It is especially unacceptable that tens of thousands of consumers have been forced to take their PPI compensation claim to the ombudsman, where the overwhelming majority of complaints are then upheld.’

The British Bankers Association said the complaints came from only a small fraction of bank customers.

It added: ‘ The UK banking industry is committed to its customers and to resolving problems as quickly as possible – that is why a lot of complaints are resolved by close of business the next day.

‘It is extremely important to keep the figures in context: the larger the bank is, the more complaints it is statistically likely to receive.

‘With more than 140million bank accounts in the UK and billions of transactions a year there will inevitably be instances when things go wrong and need to be put right with the minimum inconvenience to customers.’