BARCLAYS : reports significant reduction in complaints for first half of 2011
08/24/2011 | 05:50am*1 Barclays is required to publish FSA reportable complaints for all of its legal entities that received more than 500 complaints in the six month period, which were not resolved by close of business on the next business day. Barclays has six publishable legal entities to include Barclays Bank PLC, Firstplus Financial Group PLC, Clydesdale Financial Services Limited, Barclays Stockbrokers Limited, Woolwich Plan Managers Limited and Thomas Cook Personal Finance Ltd.
Barclays is required to publish FSA reportable complaints for all of its legal entities that received more than 500 complaints in the six month period, which were not resolved by close of business on the next business day. Barclays has six publishable legal entities to include Barclays Bank PLC, Firstplus Financial Group PLC, Clydesdale Financial Services Limited, Barclays Stockbrokers Limited, Woolwich Plan Managers Limited and Thomas Cook Personal Finance Ltd.
Barclays Bank PLC accounts for 94 per cent of all UK FSA reportable complaints and includes the following; UK Retail and Business Banking, Barclaycard (to include Egg credit card assets and MBNA Small Business Credit Card Portfolio), Barclays Wealth, Barclays Corporate, The Woolwich, Standard Life Cash Savings & Mortgages, Standard Life Cash Savings and Standard Life Mortgages.
The narrative we provide relates to Barclays Bank PLC which accounts for 94 per cent of all Barclays UK FSA Reportable Complaints and is consistent with how the FSA publishes firm complaints data on its website.
Barclays provides a full breakdown of all FSA reportable complaints data for all of its publishable legal entities on its website at www.barclays.com/complaints. On an aggregated basis the Barclays Group had 266,835 FSA Reportable Complaints in H1 2011.
Barclays FSA reportable complaints now include complaints from Egg’s UK credit card assets and MBNA Europe Bank Limited’s Small Business credit card portfolio, which have been acquired by Barclays in the first half of 2011 and were not included in previous reporting periods.
*2The General Insurance and Pure Protection category is the most significant exception to the overall progress we are making in reducing complaint volumes. In Barclays Bank PLC, complaints in this category increased by 25% between H1 2011 vs. H2 2010 with the key driver being an increase in Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) complaints.
Concerns about sales practices related to PPI has been a key driver of complaints across the UK financial services sector. In October 2010, the British Banker’s Association applied for a Judicial Review into whether the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) have correctly applied the law in relation to PPI sales complaints. On 20th April 2011 the court found in favour of the FSA and FOS.
On 9th May 2011 Barclays announced that it would not be participating in any application for permission to appeal against the High Court Judgment and that Barclays agreed with the FSA that it will process all backlog and any new complaints from customers about PPI policies they hold. Barclays also announced that, as a gesture of goodwill, it would pay out compensation to customers who had PPI complaints put on hold during the Judicial Review.
Complaint definition:
For the purposes of the complaints detailed in this report, a complaint is defined as being an expression of dissatisfaction which has not been resolved by close of business on the business day following its receipt.
Barclays Bank PLC*1 complaints of 251,563 for six months should be viewed within the context that it undertakes over 1,500,000 transactions per day, one of the highest volumes of transactions in the UK banking industry.
The significant improvement in the banking category has been driven by a relentless focus on end-to-end process simplification and re-engineering. Whilst the improvement is encouraging, volumes overall are still too high, and we will continue to drive a sustainable reduction in complaint volumes and improve our overall service to customers.
Excluding the General Insurance and Pure Protection category *2, of which the majority are PPI complaints, volumes are down 30 per cent year-on-year to 177,871 (H2 2010 to H1 2011 down 18 per cent) and we expect PPI complaint volumes to be greater in the second half of 2011 as we see an increased number of complaints following the outcome of the Judicial Review. Barclays is working hard to clear PPI complaints as quickly as possible; prioritising customers who were held up in the Judicial Review and resolving all complaints in a transparent and efficient manner.
Antony Jenkins, Chief Executive, Retail and Business Banking said:
“Delivering excellent service to our customers is our goal every single day, in every single way a customer interacts with us. We want to get it right every time. When we do get it wrong, we apologise, try to correct it quickly and identify how to prevent it from reoccurring.
“We have made good progress in reducing complaints with a substantial and sustainable reduction in banking complaints by nearly a third.
“However, there is much more to be done and we are working hard to further improve our service to our customers; putting them at the heart of our business and getting it right first time, every time.”
Barclays receives the majority of complaints in the banking category and has been undertaking a number of initiatives to drive down complaints in this area including:
- Accurate Bank Customer Data (ABCD) – 59% reduction
Over 100,000 customers change address each month and by improving how we capture and record data we have driven down complaints in this area by 59 per cent
- Answering a complaint – 27% reduction
We have put in place a helpdesk so front line employees can resolve a complaint when they are with the customer and established a team to proactively contact customers to ensure their complaint has been resolved
- Standing Orders and Direct Debits – 29% reduction
Complaints down by reviewing how we capture instructions from customers and ensuring that all changes are processed on day of receipt
- Opening a business account – 42% reduction
By implementing changes to our application process 70 per cent of business accounts are now opened within 24 hours, a process that would previously take up to 20 days
In the second half of 2011 we will continue to focus on addressing the root cause of complaints and undertake further process re-engineering of our core business activities to include:
· Improving the way that we process payments
· Reducing the time it takes to replace a debit card, currently two days (down from five)
· Reducing the time it takes to open an account or take out a loan
A full breakdown of FSA reportable complaints is available on our website www.barclays.com/complaints
BARCLAYS BANK PLC*1 | H1 2011 | H2 2010 | H1 2010 | | |
FSA Product Category | No. of complaints opened | No. of complaints opened | No. of complaints opened | % change H1 2011 vs. H2 2010 | % change H1 2011vs. H1 2010 |
Banking | 162,611 | 205,151 | 240,883 | -21% | -32% |
Home Finance | 8,894 | 8,580 | 9,384 | + 4% | -5% |
General Insurance and Pure Protection | 73,692 | 59,003 | 38,187 | +25% | +93% |
Decumulation, Life and Pensions | 2,456 | 1,530 | 1,829 | +61% | +34% |
Investments | 3,910 | 2,051 | 2,016 | + 91% | +94% |
Total | 251,563 | 276,315 | 292,299 | - 9% | -14% |
