High Street banks need to make major customer service improvements

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has criticised a number of High Street Banks for the quality of their customer service. After examining the way 600 different complaints were handled, the FSA says that situations are dealt with poorly.

Five unnamed banks were considered to be major offenders by the FSA. Two of the five are now being investigated further and large fines may be levied.

FSA director of conduct risk, Dan Waters, said:

“While we found some good practice, there is clearly evidence of unacceptable standards of complaints handling in banks.”

Waters went on to say that improvements had to be of the utmost priority, adding that the FSA would use all of its influence to encourage these banks to change their practices.

While the names of the five banks being addressed by the FSA are unknown, this follows on from similar criticism from the Financial Ombudsman Service last year. At that time, five banks were named as being the most complained about: Lloyds, Barclays, RBS-NatWest, Abbey and HSBC.

However, an HSBC spokesman said:

“HSBC can categorically confirm that it is not one of the five banks being investigated by the FSA.”

The report from the Financial Ombudsman Service painted a bleak picture of banks deliberately failing to address customer concerns and this recent criticism seems to indicate that little has changed. The FSA puts much of the blame at the door of senior management, saying they are often unconcerned with their complaints procedure.

View the original article here

Posted in: Banks,customer,improvements,major,service,Street