Today’s FCA complaints data shows an overall decrease of 4.3% in financial services complaints overall, with a total 1.78m complaints. Complaints reduced across all product areas, including the most frequently complained about areas of current accounts, motor and transport, and credit cards.

Hugh Fairclough, partner and head of financial services at RSM UK said: “The decreasing complaints seen across all financial services products is good news, and suggests that measures to improve outcomes for customers introduced by Consumer Duty are having a positive impact. Many firms have improved their customer service practices in response, which may now be coming through in today’s H2 2024 complaints data. The resolution of long-standing issues, such as Payment Protection Insurance complaints, has likely also contributed to the overall decrease, along with improved communication with customers, as clearer customer information means fewer misunderstandings which can lead to complaints.

“In insurance, the 6% reduction in complaints may be partly due to insurers getting better at catching issues before they escalate into an official customer complaint. There is also a 4.2% reduction in decumulation and pensions complaints, perhaps indicative of a slow-down in pensions defined benefit transfer advice complaints, as most of the market has effectively stopped this service, and professional indemnity insurers have pulled away from it.

“It will be interesting to see whether the declining complaints trend continues into the next data set though, as with the Supreme Court ruling on motor lender’s discretionary commission payments, we may see complaints increasing again in H1 2025.”

All product groups saw a decrease in their complaint numbers:

• Banking and credit cards decreased 1.3% from 850,983 (2024 H1) to 839,526 (2024 H2)
• Decumulation & pensions decreased 4.2% from 93,045 (2024 H1) to 89,172 (2024 H2)
• Home finance decreased 10.0% from 93,234 (2024 H1) to 83,936 (2024 H2)
• Insurance & pure protection decreased 6.0% from 764,272 (2024 H1) to 718,496 (2024 H2)
• Investments decreased 15.7% from 62,825 (2024 H1) to 52,971 (2024 H2)

Complaints decreased in the three most frequently complained about products:

• Current accounts from 492,558 in 2024 H1 to 491,172 in 2024 H2 (0.3%)
• Motor and transport from 276,795 in 2024 H1 to 254,788 in 2024 H2 (8.0%)
• Credit cards from 222,529 in 2024 H1 to 217,160 in 2024 H2 (2.4%)