The total number of complaints reported by firms in the second half of 2016 was 3.04 million. This number is higher than previous reporting periods because under the FCA’s new rules all complaints are now captured in the data.

The data reflect the fact that under the new rules, financial services firms have longer to resolve complaints less formally. Firms now have three days to address a complaint to a consumer’s satisfaction, this is up from the previous next business day time limit.

The FCA believes the new data set is more informative because it shows the number of complaints against size of the business. It also provides greater insight about the products that consumers complain about. This information will provide a better understanding of the areas where consumers are struggling to gain satisfaction.

Greater transparency of complaints information will enable consumers looking to invest or buy products to be better informed about the products that have caused concern for other consumers.

Christopher Woolard, Executive Director of Strategy and Competition, said:

“Consumers want a simple way to complain that does not leave them out of pocket. And they want to be assured that their concerns will be dealt with fairly and quickly.

“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”.

Payment protection insurance (PPI) is the most complained about product. The total number of PPI complaints was 895,000. Excluding PPI, the number of complaints was 2.15 million. Current accounts were the next most complained about product with around 514,000.

The total redress paid to consumers was £1.9 billion in the second half of 2016. When all redress payments related to PPI are excluded, the redress figure is approximately £0.3 billion during the same time period.