Financial firms provide data to the FCA every six months about the complaints they have received, what these were about and how they dealt with them. The FCA collects and publishes data at both an aggregate (market level) and firm specific, although only publishes firm specific data for firms reporting 500 or more complaints in a six month reporting period, or 1,000 or more complaints in an annual reporting period.
The FCA uses the complaints data to help assess how firms interact with and treat their customers as well as monitoring their performance over time. It also uses this data to guide its work in supervising firms and markets, highlighting any potential concerns with specific financial products offered.
Key findings include:
In 2021 H2, financial services firms received 1.84m complaints, 10% lower than in 2021 H1 (2.04m). This is the lowest level recorded since 2016 H2.
The insurance and pure protection product group saw the largest decrease in complaints received by firms: from 890,000 complaints in 2021 H1 to 770,000 complaints in 2021 H2 (11%). There was also a noticeable decrease in home finance complaints (14%), investments (29%) and decumulation and pensions (16%). No product group saw an increase from 2021 H2.
Unlike in previous returns, the decrease in insurance and pure protection complaints was not driven by the drop in complaints about Payment Protection Insurance (PPI). Instead, it was consistent across all products. The exception was in warranties which has increased 18% from 44,329 to 52,091 (after also increasing 19% in 2021 H1).
