Banking Sector Complaints Hit Highest Level in a Decade, Ombudsman Reports

Banking sector complaints have reached their highest level in a decade, the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) announced on Friday. Customers raised 80,137 cases with the free resolution service about banking and payment products in the financial year 2023/2024, compared with 61,995 in 2022/2023. Current account concerns, credit card issues and worries about fraud were behind the increase, according to the FOS. Current accounts were the product that received the most complaints, with 30,635 raised, and credit cards followed with 24,402, of which 13,584 were due to perceptions of unaffordable or irresponsible lending. In 2022/2023, there were 14,504 credit complaints and 3,723 related to irresponsible lending. The year 2023/2024 also saw fraud cases generate 27,312 complaints, with around 50 percent concerning authorised push payment (APP) scams, where a victim is tricked into transferring money online to a fraudster presenting themselves as a genuine payee....