Over 2.9 million financial service complaints registered last year
The financial services industry has taken a serious battering over the last two or three years with complaints reaching record levels having risen from 2.72 million in 2006 to 3.4 million in 2007, although there has been a slight decline to 2.9 million in 2008. However, with over 1.2 million of these claims currently "parked" until they have been resolved between the parties or else go to the courts, there is a serious and growing problem.
We have yet to see the figures for 2009, which will be the last year under the current regime, because after 2009 companies will be obliged to publish their own individual complaints statistics. While the British Bankers Association has welcomed the release of the figures it has attempted to put the complaint numbers into context. The complainants in question amounted to 3.5 per 1000 products sold which is a relatively small amount when compared to the number of financial transactions in the UK.
Many fear that the complaint numbers for 2009 could reach an all-time high as more and more consumers are checking the small print as money becomes ever tighter and homes are now at risk for hundreds of thousands of people in the UK.
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