Regulator: Banks not dealing adequately with customer complaints
Officials from the Office of the Financial Regulator carried out checks on the main retail banks and building societies, both on- and off-site, to check whether their complaints-handling procedures were up to date.
The regulator announced yesterday that, while all institutions had procedures in place which complied with the requirements as set down in the Consumer Protection Code, there were still problems, with 27% of consumers having “no idea” how to complain about a financial product or service.
The Financial Regulator has written to all the credit institutions (not including credit unions) to highlight a variety of shortcomings experienced by customers who have complaints about how their gripe was handled. These include:
* Inadequate records of complaints being maintained in some cases.
* Failure to tell customers of their right to refer the complaint to the Financial Services Ombudsman.
* Some credit institutions not offering customers the opportunity to have their verbal complaint treated as a written complaint.
* Customers not always receiving written confirmation of the outcome of the financial institutions’ investigations into their complaints, and a failure by some credit institutions sometimes to manage information from the complaint to better their service.
A spokesperson for the Financial Regulator said no figures were being made available as to the number of financial institutions who were responsible for the above failings, but said: “The nature of complaints varies across the industry, and, therefore, more complex complaints will take longer to investigate.
“For example, some complaints can be easily resolved on the spot, whereas other complaints will require further investigation and research by the credit institution to ensure that the matter is resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
“Where issues were identified, they were of a technical nature regarding Code requirements. Overall, all credit institutions have adequate procedures in place to investigate customer complaints.”
She added: “We did not identify any particular trends in any one area. Most complaints appeared to centre around customer service and admin-type issues.”
The consumer director of the Financial Regulator, Mary O’Dea, said banks and building societies needed to do more to make customers aware of complaints procedures.
“Credit institutions should not wait for customers to complain, before providing information on the process,” she said.
