British banking complaints up 8% in first half of year

Complaints about Britain’s financial firms rose 8% in the first half of this year after a jump in new cases about packaged bank accounts, the UK industry’s watchdog said yesterday.

Packaged bank accounts offer a range of additional services, such as insurance policies, better deals on savings accounts or loans, and other perks, in exchange for a monthly fee.

Three major banks, Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and Lloyds, have set aside £732 million between them to compensate customers for possible mis-sold packaged accounts, raising concern it could build into another big compensation problem for the industry.