Soaring complaints against high street financial services

Tue, 02 May 2006

The number of complaints against high street banks increased by almost half in the last 12 months, reveals a new report into banking facilities. According to the Banking Code Standards Board (BCSB), it received 3,500 complaints and enquiries during 2005, with most complaints being about interest rates and charges. The industry watchdog, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) now has to decide whether to take action against bank branches and their offending banking practices. It is also thought by the BCSB that these rising levels of the complaints could be just "the tip of the iceberg", as contacting the standards board is usually the last port of call for a consumer. The BCSB said it also received a high number of complaints about the reliability and security of banking systems as well as the standard of help and advice provided to consumers coping with financial difficulty. These statistics follow the recent decision by the Office of Fair Trading to deem bank charges and penalties as unfair, demanding all chains reduce their charges to a maximum of £12 by the end of May.

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