FIN.

Complaints Commission Report: how financial services regulators consider complaints

The Complaints Commission has published its annual report for 2020/2021 which reviews how the financial services regulators consider complaints. Highlights include:

  • the Commissioner dealt with 393 complaints in the year to 31 March 2021;
  • 46% of concluded cases were about the FCA’s oversight of firms, rules or schemes. The remaining 54% of cases involved 4 PRA concluded cases;
  • 90% of cases were dealt with in 8 weeks;
  • 60 recommendations and suggestions were made to the FCA and 2 to the PRA;
  • there was a 44% increase on the previous year in complaints against the FCA – this was in part due to an increase in complaints relating to the FCA’s regulation of London Capital & Finance plc.

The report also sets out the key themes that emerged from the Commissioner’s review. These are:

  • FCA supervision and regulation of firms;
  • FCA and rule making;
  • The FCA data breach;
  • Vulnerable complainants; and
  • Large banks: suspension of dividend payments.

The FCA has issued a report in response which addresses these key themes and looks at areas for improvement.

Lucy Hadrill