On 30 May 2018, the Financial Ombudsman Service (“FOS“) published its 2017 / 2018 Annual Review.

Key findings

The key findings arising from the 2017 / 2018 Annual Review are as follows:

• FOS remains very busy. It has dealt with 339,967 new complaints and resolved 400,658 complaints (including 32,780 Ombudsman decisions).

PPI

• Of those new complaints, 186,418 (55%) related to allegations of PPI mis-selling (down 13% from 2016/2017).
• 1/4 million + of the FOS resolved complaints were in respect of PPI.
• 36% of the PPI complaints were upheld by the FOS.
• 1.6 million PPI complaints have been resolved by the FOS since 2011.

Banking and credit

• 104,214 (31%) of the new complaints concerned banking and credit issues (up 4% from 2016/2017).
• 31% of banking and credit complaints were upheld by the FOS.
• FOS remains concerned that lenders are not doing enough to ensure people’s borrowing is sustainable or are not responding constructively to their customers’ concerns.
• In comparison to 2016 / 2017, there has been a 146% increase in complaints about home credit and a 64% increase in new complaints about payday loans.
• 1 in 4 new complaints, other than PPI, involved consumer credit.

Insurance

• 36,703 (11%) of the new complaints related to insurance (down 4% from 2016 / 2017).
• Motor insurance (11,887), building insurance (4,726) and travel insurance (3,174) were the most complained about insurance products.
• 30% of the insurance complaints were upheld by FOS.
• The FOS has seen 200 new complaints each month about the price of insurance, with individuals complaining about year-on-year increases in premiums to what they considered to be unacceptable levels. In some cases, FOS agreed that people had paid the price of loyalty.

Investments and pensions

• 12,632 (4%) of the new complaints related to investments and pensions (down 13% from 2016 / 2017).
• 28% of investments and pensions complaints were upheld.
• There was a 37% rise in Self Invested Personal Pensions (“SIPPs“) complaints. SIPPs are now the most complained about pension product that FOS sees.