The second half of 2010 saw Lloyds TSB experience a 14 per cent increase in complaints as customers flooded bank branches claiming they had been mis-sold payment protection insurance policies.
From July of last year Lloyds received approximately 1,800 complaints every day, which led to figures of 329,716 by the end of December. The first half of 2010 saw only 288,717 complaints against one of the biggest personal and business bank account providers in the UK.
The 41 per cent nationalised financial services provider is insistent that the higher-than-average number of complaints is partly due to the bank’s large size. Across its many brands such as Cheltenham & Gloucester, Bank of Scotland, and Halifax, Lloyds handles more than 30 million accounts.
All major UK banking providers are required to release their complaints figures in the wake of a new Financial Services Authority ruling this past August. Similar data can be expected from Lloyds’ competitors in the near future.
Lloyds was the first to publish its complaints data under the new FSA rules. Lloyds customer services head, Martin Dodd, stated that the financial group has their work cut out for them in order to reduce the heightened complaint rates the bank has been experiencing.
More than one out of every four complaints the Financial Ombudsman Service receives concerns Lloyds, according to recently released figures by the customer dispute authority. The FOS handled 84,000 complaints during the first six months of 2010 that went unresolved by Lloyds.
Mr Dodd also stated that the 14 per cent rise in total complaints could be traced to a surge in the number of payment protection insurance complaints during the second half of 2010. The PPI mis-selling scandal has hit several banks in addition to Lloyds.
Designed to repay a loan if a borrower loses his or her job, PPI has been criticised for its unsuitable and overpriced nature. Additionally reports of customers being pushed into the insurance by hard-selling tactics have been reported as well.
As of July 2010 Lloyds no longer sold the insurance to its customers.