Bank charges and PPI insurance complaints jump

28/05/2008 23:57

LONDON (Reuters) - Britons made a record number of complaints about financial services provision last year, driven by objections about bank account charges and payment protection insurance.

The number of complaints and enquiries from consumers to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) jumped to 794,648 in the year to the end of March 2008, up 27 percent from the previous year and the highest since the FOS was set up in 2001.

The FOS said in its annual report released on Wednesday that it referred 123,089 of the cases to its adjudicators for more detailed dispute resolution work, up 30 percent from the previous year and surpassing the previous highest total of 112,923 in 2006.

Bank-related complaints more than tripled, which the FOS said was driven by the heavy volume of complaints it received about charges for unauthorised overdraft charges.

Thousands of people complained about bank charges in the first half of last year, but a refund process was suspended last July, pending the outcome of an ongoing High Court decision on whether the charges are fair.