Financial Ombudsman Complaints Treble

Financial Ombudsman Complaints Treble.

The amount of complaints the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) received in the start of the year has nearly trebled.

Complaints on financial products and services have hit a new high of 159,197, compared with 57,076 received at the same time last year.  This is a huge increase.

Figures published suggest that the  bulk of complaints were made up by Payment Protection Insurance (PPI), with more than 132,000 claims made in April and June alone this year. This meant that 83% of all complaints were PPI related rocketing from the 56% received last year.

Our View

Professional claims firms are stoking the fires here.   Was every single client mis-sold PPI?  Probably not.  Should we help clients sue the PPI Claims firm if a policy is cancelled from inception with a full refund and they then suffer an illness that they could have claimed for?  Absolutely.

Should the regulator legislate for an enforced PPI review, just like the Pension Mis-Selling Scandal of the early 1990's - yes.  This would cut the burden on the FOS immediately and force providers to review cases correctly.