Lloyds TSB and other members of Lloyds Banking Group have once again risen to the top of the list in regards to financial service providers that have attracted the largest number of complaints to the Financial Ombudsman for the first half of 2010.
New figures released recently showcase that the entire Lloyds Banking Group, which are comprised of not only Lloyds TSB but the Black Horse, Halifax, and Bank of Scotland brands, racked up a grand total of 22,242 filed complaints for the first six months of 2010, which is up only slightly from 2009’s second half figure of 20,190.
At a total of 12,750 complaints, Lloyds TSB Bank generated almost two times as many as the next financial provider down the list from its competitor, Barclays. Once considered one of the best business bank accounts in the UK, the bank had a total of 7,991 complaints over the last six months.
Yet despite Barclays second-place finish, the bank actually had a larger percentage of its complaints upheld by the financial ombudsman; Lloyds TSB’s rate was 45 per cent, while Barclays’ was 61 per cent of the total.
The ombudsman service was in receipt of a grand total of 84,212 new complaints for the first half of 2010, which represents only a minimal increase from the figure of 82,136 complaints it received for the last six months of 2009.
In addition to Barclays and Lloyds, three other UK banking groups had in excess of 3,000 complaints each, which led to a figure of 47,507 total. The other banks – RBS, relative Spanish-based newcomer Santander, and HSBC – accounted for more than half of the ombudsman’s workload over the last six months. Santander had the least number of complaints upheld against it, with only 19 per cent of cases, in comparison to Barclays, which led the pack.