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27th April 2017

New Complaints Rules: Data Published

This week the FCA published the first set of data under the new Complaints Rules that came into effect last year.

As a reminder, the New Complaints Handling Rules came into effect on 30th June 2016. At that time, all firms were required to adhere to the New Complaints Handling Rules and submit a Complaints Handling Report to the regulator about the number and types of complaints they received over a period of six months.

Reporting Requirements:

The first Complaints reporting date was in February this year and covered the six month period following the implementation of the new rules.

Whilst there were no exemptions to reporting, firms that had few complaints within the six month reporting period were allowed to complete a shortened form and those that had no complaints a Nil return was required to be submitted.

Complaints Data: What it showed

The Regulator’s report shows that in the second half of last year, the total number of complaints reported by firms was 3.04 million.

Whilst this number is higher than that in previous reporting periods, this is due to ALL complaints being captured within the data required to be reported under the new rules, whereas previously firms weren’t required to report upon complaints handled informally .

As a reminder, under the new rules:

• Financial services firms now have longer to resolve complaints less formally since firms have 3 days to address a complaint, previously this was just 1 business day;
• Firms will now need to report data on ALL complaints every six months;
• Complaint data will be made public by the regulator;
• Premium rate call charges for customers will be banned; And
• The categorisation of complaints has changed to make it clear whether unsuitable financial advice or unclear guidance is the cause.

See our previous article for more information on the New Complaints Handling Rules.

The regulator believes that the data now being reported is more informative than it has been in the past as it now shows the number of complaints against the size of business and provides a greater insight into the products that consumers complain about.

The Executive Director of Strategy and Competition at the FCA, Christopher Woolard said:

“These data will provide us with improved intelligence on complaints including new detailed data to show where industry is potentially failing consumers at product level”

Handling of Complaints & Reporting Support

If you are newly regulated and would like assistance in establishing your complaints handling processes or your firm is currently reviewing your Complaints Reporting processes and would like additional support, please get in touch with our experienced regulatory support team who would be happy to help.

New Complaints Handling Data Published by FCA