FCA reports drop in complaints received by fin services firms in H2 2021
The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published the latest complaints data. It comprises the market-level data reported to the FCA by financial services firms for 2021 H2, that is, the period between 1 July 2021 and 31 December 2021.
In the second half of 202, financial services firms received 1.84 million complaints, 10% lower than in the first half of 2021 (2.04m). This is the lowest level recorded since the second half of 2016.
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).
Current accounts are still the most complained about products. The number of complaints for these increased 5% from 503,135 in 2021 H1 to 526,609 in 2021 H2. Other general insurance is the second most complained about product, but this fell 28% from 297,650 to 216,438.
As the number of PPI complaints has fallen, so too has the total number of complaints that took longer than 8 weeks to close. In 2021 H2, only 6% of complaints took this long to close, compared to 12% in 2021 H1.
The total redress paid fell 52% from £559 million in 2021 H1 to £291.5 million. Although the majority of this can be attributed to the falling PPI complaints, the amount paid for other complaints still fell 22% from £284 million in 2021 H1 to £222.2 million in 2021 H2.
The percentage of complaints that are upheld increased slightly from 59.4% in 2021 H1 to 59.5% in 2021 H2.