FOS complaints jump in first quarter of 2012
The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) received 9,590 complaints in the first quarter of this year - almost one third more than the first quarter of last year, according to FOS statistics.
There has been a steadily increasing trend since the first quarter of 2011 when 7,415 complaints were received, despite a slight dip in the fourth quarter.
Half the complaints related to credit (4,810) and almost one third to general insurance (2,814). Complaints relating to payment systems, deposit taking, investments and life insurance together made up less than 20 per cent of complaints for the quarter.
A significant number of disputes were closed over the same period, although it lagged behind the number of new disputes.
The 8,734 disputes closed in the first quarter of 2012 were up 5 per cent on the previous quarter and up 20 per cent on the January-March 2011 quarter.
Three quarters of resolutions resulted from an agreement between the financial services provider (FSP) and the applicant, and the remaining quarter were resolved by FOS decision.
Almost half of these (11 per cent of total resolutions) were deemed to be outside the FOS' terms of reference.
Of the remainder, 6 per cent of resolutions were discontinuations (where the complainant discontinues the dispute or fails to respond to communications). 5 per cent of total resolutions were by FOS decision in favour of the FSP, and just 3 per cent of resolutions were by FOS decision in favour of the applicant.
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