FOS lead ombudsman, investments and advice, June Smith said many investors complained that the advice they received was not suitable for their goals, objectives or risk tolerance.
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The Financial Ombudsman, which compiled the figures, said borrowers had become more aware of their rights. Over the same period previous year Sesame received 172 complaints, 27% upheld. Across individual businesses, the uphold rate ranged from 3% to 92%.
According to the Financial Ombudsman, PPI complaints amounted to 54% of new cases filed in the first half of the year, while the “uphold rate” – cases in which the complaint is found in favour of the customer – for all PPI cases stood at 57%.
The ombudsman only deals with disputes that can not be resolved between a consumer and a financial institution, so only reflects a fraction of the total number of unhappy customers.
Today’s reports shows Lloyds is the most complained about bank, with 22,241 in the first half of this year, up 7% on the previous six months. Of the 80 complaints made about Openwork 24 per cent were upheld.
Analysts have already suggested that Lloyds, which has already paid £16bn in compensation, the most of any other United Kingdom bank, could have to fork out an extra £1bn. It believes this is due to a greater awareness. “So we must be careful not to assume that because someone can not remember being credit checked it did not happen”, comments Russell Hamblin-Boone, chief executive of the Consumer Finance Association, which represents payday lenders. Mixed asset funds were the most common managed investment product investors lodged complaints about in 2015-16, representing 250 disputes or 59% of managed investment disputes.
FOS accepted 1,095 life insurance disputes in 2015-16, with about half (49 per cent) of these disputes involving income protection insurance, the statement said. “And we’re continuing to deal with the issues and uncertainties around PPI, which remain a significant challenge for everyone involved”.
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Chief ombudsman Caroline Wayman said: “The data we have published about complaints over the last decade or so helps to illustrates a challenging and volatile period for financial businesses”.
