By Elliot Wright, 12th January 2010
Consumer complaints arbitrator, the Financial Ombudsman Service
(FOS), expects to resolve a record 210,000 complaints - including
46,000 mis sold payment protection insurance (PPI) cases - over the
next financial year.
The FOS, which settles disputes between customers and financial
firms on a range of issues such as mis sold PPI, mis sold
endowments and unfair bank charges, has forecast a 27% increase on
the 165,000 complaints it resolved in the past year- itself a 44%
increase on the previous year.
It is expected that 42,700 mis sold PPI cases will be resolved
by the FOS by the end of this financial - a substantial increase on
the 25,000 it had expected to receive. For the 2010-11 financial
year this figure is forecast to rise to 46,000.
42,700 mis sold PPI cases will be resolved
by the FOS year - it had expected to receive just 25,000
Other areas where growth in complaint numbers is expected in
2010/11 are banking - forecast to increase by 16% to 85,000 cases -
and consumer credit - forecast to increase by 55% to 10,200
cases.
The FOS says that increases in consumer complaints are expected
due to the continuing impact of the recession and less than
optimistic forecasts from the financial services industry.
To combat the massive surge in complaints the FOS is raising its
operating costs by nearly £20m from £96.6m to £113.5m, and taking
on an additional 300 casework staff.
Claims Financial
Testimonial
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Mr R Evans 11 Nov 2010