Complaints about bank scams increase

The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) received nearly 25,000 complaints about current accounts in the year to March, more than any other product.

FOS says a big chunk of these were from victims of authorised fraud, such as customers being tricked into transferring money into other accounts often by scammers posing as their bank.

Complaints to the FOS about these swindles jumped by more than a fifth to 9,370 in the last financial year and around 75% were upheld in the consumers’ favour.

Administration and customer service problems topped the list of issues where customers had problems, with more than 35,000 complaints against financial businesses being brought to the Financial Ombudsman, including nearly 25,000 in the banking and credit sector.

The Financial Ombudsman Service 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, FOS received 57,000 complaints linked to all types of borrowing last year. FOS also saw an increase in complaints about second charge mortgages, including from people in financially vulnerable positions. In some cases, we have seen interest rates of over 35% being applied to the loans.

Overall, in the main financial product areas, 108,065 new complaints about banking and credit, 33,127 were about insurance, 16,276 were about investments and pensions whilst 5,369 about payment protection insurance (PPI).

Commenting on the figures, Nausicaa Delfas, interim Chief Executive and Chief Ombudsman of the Financial Ombudsman Service said “Over the past year, the Financial Ombudsman Service continued to help over two hundred thousand customers who had problems with financial businesses on issues across banking, lending, insurance and investments. In this period of economic uncertainty it is more important than ever that where problems do arise, they are addressed quickly. We are here to help to resolve financial disputes fairly and impartially.”