Complaints soar over banking

More customers taking action on current accounts and credit cards

Complaints relating to current accounts and credit cards increased in the second half of last year, according to figures from the City regulator. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) recorded 874,568 complaints about banking and credit cards in the second half of 2023, up by 3.2% compared with the first half of last year.

Complaints about current accounts increased by 1% comparing the first and second halves of 2023, with 515,336 gripes in the second half of 2023.

Credit card complaints jumped by 7.5% over the same period, with 217,032 complaints in the second half of last year.

In the FCA’s insurance category, motor and transportrelated complaints increased by 1%, to 281,082 in the second half of 2023.

The FCA’s figures also showed that investments related complaints also increased, by 3.4%, when comparing the second half of 2023 with the first half, with 61,446 gripes recorded in the last six months of 2023.

Complaints relating to pensions and insurance fell in the second half of last year.

Overall, in the second half of 2023, financial services firms received 1.87 million complaints, which was a decrease of 1% compared with the first half of 2023.

Since the payment protection insurance (PPI) peak in 2020, complaints have remained relatively constant, the FCA said.

The percentage of complaints which were upheld decreased from 61% in the first half of 2023 to 58% in the second half of last year.

In the second half of 2023, around £259 million was paid out in redress. This is 10% higher than the first half of last year. The average redress amount paid was £203, up from £183 in the first half of 2023.

The FCA publishes complaints data every six months and its figures include submissions from firms reporting 500 or more complaints within a six-month period, or firms reporting 1,000 or more complaints in a year.

The regulator uses the data to help assess how well firms are treating their customers and how their performance changes over time.

PRODUCTS

Here are the top three most complained-about products in the second half of 2023, with their category in brackets and the number of complaints recorded, according to the FCA’s figures:

1. Current accounts (banking and credit cards), 515,336

2. Motor and transport (insurance and pure protection), 281,082

3. Credit cards (banking and credit cards), 217,032

■ Meanwhile, NatWest has revealed its mortgage lending nearly halved at the start of the year as it retreated from parts of the market when competition among lenders stepped up.

The banking group said new mortgage lending totalled £5.2 billion in the first three months of the year, down from £9.9 billion the previous year.

Paul Thwaite, NatWest’s chief executive, said demand for mortgages reduced throughout 2023 and there were fewer deals on offer. He added: “Because the market was relatively thin, price competition was very high and we took a conscious decision at that point to not compete across all segments during the latter part of the third and fourth quarter. We wanted to ensure we could get the right returns from the capital we were deploying.”

He said that explains the year-on-year decline in lending, but added that mortgage applications had since increased by about 25% and the lender has grown its share of the market to more than 12%.

The group reported an operating pre-tax profit of £1.3 billion for the first quarter, down 27% from £1.8 billion the previous year. It is ahead of the £1.2 billion profit analysts were pencilling in for the quarter. Total income for the bank fell by a 10th as more customers moved money from current accounts and into savings accounts with higher returns.

But NatWest revealed that customer deposits increased by £2 billion in the first quarter, reflecting growth in savings and current account balances since the end of 2023.

'Complaints about credit cards jumped by 7.5% in second half of last year'