Yahoo Finance 
The most complained-about banks
Every six months the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) publishes data on which individual financial firms have attracted the most complaints.
The Ombudsman is where you take your complaint if you have already complained to a financial firm but they haven’t resolved the issue to your satisfaction.
The latest figures cover the six-month period from 1st January 2014 to 30th June 2014.
They include the number of complaints received against an individual business and the percentage of complaints upheld in the complainant’s favour.
Latest scores
The latest results show complaints have dropped across the board, with 191,129 new cases in the first half of this year compared to 248,801 in the second half of 2013.
Here is how the nation’s biggest banks and building societies fared, ordered by number of new complaints.
Bank/building society | Number of UK customers | Number of new complaints | Percentage of complaints resolved in favour of the complainant |
Lloyds Banking Group (Lloyds Bank, Bank of Scotland, Cheltenham & Gloucester and Scottish Widows) | 30 million | 30,768 | 66% |
Barclays | 15 million | 26,955 | 66% |
HSBC Group (HSBC Bank and Marks & Spencer Bank) | 16 million | 12,429 | 78% |
Santander | 14 million | 7,876 | 51% |
Nationwide Building Society | 15 million | 4,886 | 12% |
National Australia Bank Group (Clydesdale Bank only) | 7.7 million | 2,666 | 57% |
The Co-operative Group (Co-operative Bank only) | 5.5 million | 1,665 | 40% |
Tesco Bank | 7 million | 1,399 | 29% |
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland and Ulster Bank) | 17 million | 6072 | 38% |
Yorkshire Building Society | 3.25 million | 823 | 7% |
Leeds Building Society | 695,642 | 168 | 18% |
Skipton Building Society | 744,000 | 128 | 19% |
West Bromwich Building Society | 487,000 | 123 | 15% |
Newcastle Building Society | 431,256 | 107 | 8% |
Coventry Building Society | 1.59 million | 106 | 3% |
Virgin Money | 3 million | 65 | 16% |
Principality Building Society | 499,344 | 55 | 5% |
Cumberland Building Society | 167,174 | 51 | 8% |
Nottingham Building Society | 192,529 | 48 | 4% |
Sources: Financial Ombudsman Service, Building Societies Association and annual reports
[The longest ever 0% purchase card]
Winners and losers
As you can see, it’s been another poor year for Lloyds Banking Group, which attracted the most complaints, two-thirds of which were upheld. Lloyds Bank alone was the subject of 30,768 new complaints (66% were found in favour of the customer) and Bank of Scotland 27,883 (51% were found in favour of the customer) while Cheltenham & Gloucester picked up 726 and Scottish Widows 133.
But it’s HSBC that found itself on the losing side of the Ombudsman’s judgments in the vast majority of cases, with the adjudicator ruling in favour of the complainant in 78% of cases. When you consider the average percentage of complaints resolved in favour of the complainant stood at 57% across the financial sector, it’s clear HSBC has done pretty badly.
Building societies attracted fewer complaints but, as you can see, these institutions tend to have fewer customers than the big banks.
Nottingham Building Society attracted the smallest number of new complaints according to the data at just 48, but considering it has under 200,000 customers that is perhaps unsurprising. Lloyds Banking Group, in comparison, has 30 million customers to keep happy.
Out of the 45 odd building societies in the UK, Nationwide is the biggest by far, boasting 15 million customers and comprising 62% of the sector by proportion of assets (£193 million). It attracted 4,886 complaints but only 12% of complaints were found in favour of the complainant.
All of the complaints data is available on the Financial Ombudsman Service’s website if you want to check in detail how your bank or building society performed.
[The most desirable postcodes]
What we’re complaining about
It should come as no great surprise that payment protection insurance (PPI) continues to be the main area for complaints. Over those six months, 70% of the complaints referred to the Ombudsman centred on this form of insurance, with five financial firms accounting for almost 70% of the new PPI cases.
The number of non-PPI complaints rose by 3% against the second half of last year. Similarly, there was a 7% increase in banking and credit complaints and a 1% rise in insurance complaints.
Here are the top five most-complained about high street banks and building societies in each category:
Banking and credit
Bank or building society | Number of new complaints | Percentage of complaints resolved in favour of the complainant |
Lloyds Bank | 3,828 | 30% |
Barclays | 3,643 | 49% |
Bank of Scotland | 2,281 | 28% |
Santander | 2,135 | 51% |
RBS | 1,183 | 41% |
Average percentage of complaints resolved in favour of complainant for all businesses – 40%
Mortgages and home finance
Bank or building society | Number of new complaints | Percentage of complaints resolved in favour of the complainant |
Bank of Scotland | 1,062 | 38% |
Santander | 753 | 31% |
Barclays | 503 | 52% |
Nationwide | 300 | 32% |
Average percentage of complaints resolved in favour of complainant for all businesses – 32%
General insurance (excluding PPI)
Bank or building society | Number of new complaints | Percentage of complaints resolved in favour of the complainant |
HSBC | 482 | 28% |
Lloyds Bank | 270 | 14% |
Barclays | 231 | 47% |
Santander | 203 | 30% |
Bank of Scotland | 201 | 44% |
Average percentage of complaints resolved in favour of complainant for all businesses - 36%
PPI
Bank or building society | Number of new complaints | Percentage of complaints resolved in favour of the complainant |
Lloyds Bank | 26,209 | 73% |
Bank of Scotland | 24,134 | 54% |
Barclays | 22,316 | 69% |
HSBC | 9,682 | 84% |
Royal Bank of Scotland | 4,586 | 38% |
Average percentage of complaints resolved in favour of complainant for all businesses - 64%
Investments
Bank or building society | Number of new complaints | Percentage of complaints resolved in favour of the complainant |
Lloyds Bank | 139 | 30% |
Barclays | 138 | 57% |
Santander | 101 | 43% |
HSBC | 92 | 55% |
Bank of Scotland | 86 | 25% |
Average percentage of complaints resolved in favour of complainant for all businesses - 46%
Life & pensions
Bank or building society | Number of new complaints | Percentage of complaints resolved in favour of the complainant |
Lloyds Bank | 132 | 15% |
Barclays | 124 | 32% |
Bank of Scotland | 119 | 27% |
Santander | 98 | 34% |
HSBC | 36 | 31% |
Average percentage of complaints resolved in favour of complainant for all businesses – 29%
