Financial Ombudsman Service publishes annual complaints data 2021/22 (financial-ombudsman.org.uk)
Context
The Financial Ombudsman Service has published its annual complaints data for the April 2021 to March 2022 financial year, with insight into common problems raised by consumers.
Key points to note
- Complaints about “authorised” scams increased by around a fifth in the last financial year, with nearly 9,370 complaints being received compared to 7,770 in 2020/21. FOS is continuing to uphold around three quarters of “authorised” scam complaints in the consumers’ favour.
- With the number of cases about ‘authorised’ scams increasing, FOS continued to see high numbers of fraud and scams cases in 2021/22, with more than 17,500 new complaints in total. FOS saw new trends in scams involving social media and scams relating to fake investments.
- Administration and customer service problems topped the list of issues where customers had problems, with more than 35,000 complaints being brought to FOS, including nearly 25,000 in the banking and credit sector. Examples of this included a lack of attention to detail, and sending personal information to the wrong address.
- Current accounts were the most complained about product, with nearly 25,000 new cases.
- Covid-19 and the cost-of-living crisis continued to impact on people’s financial lives. Overall, we received 57,000 complaints linked to all types of borrowing last year, including an increase in complaints about second charge mortgages (including from people in financially vulnerable positions).
- FOS has also published commentary and insight on complaints received in 2020/21, including analysis and case studies covering banking and credit, borrowing, insurance and investments.
Overall, in the main financial product areas, FOS received:
- 108,065 new complaints about banking and credit
- 33,127 about insurance
- 16,276 about investments and pensions
- 5,369 about payment protection insurance (PPI)
Next actions
None – for information and awareness.