The number of complaints against financial services companies rose by 30% over the past year, according to the Financial Ombudsman Serice, which says it dealt with 123,089 new complaints during the 2007/2008 financial year. Complaints about mortgages and banking services tripled, insurance complaints doubled but mortgage endowment issues fell by nearly three quarters.
Over half of all complaints were about the country’s five leading financial services providers, which the FOS says is roughly in line with the ammount of business they account for in the UK. Following a succesful high court test case against unfair bank charges earlier this year, the FOS says it has seen a ten-fold increase in the number complaints about current account charges.
