Barclays : publishes complaints data for H2 2014 - Total complaints fall 19 per cent

BARCLAYS PUBLISHES COMPLAINTS DATA FOR H2 2014 - TOTAL 2014 COMPLAINTS FALL 19 PER CENT

Barclays has today published total reportable complaints figures for the second half of 2014, which confirm the Bank's progress in long term complaint reduction.
The new figures now give a complete picture for 2014 where total complaints including Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) reduced by 132,771 (2014, 566,010; 2013, 698,781), a 19 per cent reduction. Within this:

• PPI (General Insurance complaints) are down 173,663 (2014, 342,091, 2013, 515,754).
• Banking complaints are up 39,903 (2014, 203,668; 2013, 163,765), driven largely by historic issues not the day to day experience of customers in 2014. Levels of banking complaints remain much lower than in previous years (2012, 277,736; 2011, 321,908).
• Mortgage complaints are up 2,638 (2014, 11,368; 2013, 8,730) reflecting a significant growth in the number of applications Barclays' handles each day. However, following work to address these issues, the volume of complaints has fallen seven per cent in the second half of 2014 (H2 2014, 5,468; H1 2014, 5,900).

Matt Hammerstein, Head of Client and Customer Experience at Barclays, said:

"We are committed to providing the best banking experience for our customers and are working tirelessly to make this happen. We know we still have further to go and are not complacent. Through the significant changes we are making to simplify our products, create greater transparency and free up our colleagues to help customers, we expect long term improvements in customer satisfaction levels."

Barclays is also working hard to improve the proportion of customers who would strongly advocate our service levels to others. We believe this is a crucial measure of customer service in addition to complaint volume reporting.

Barclays is improving customer service and preventing the root causes of complaints:

Improving communication channels

• Increased our number of available telephony colleagues during busy times and trialling a new call back initiative to minimise waiting times.
• Improving digital engagement through our Digital Eagles.
• Invested in 50 dedicated Barclays colleagues, who will help frontline advisors, both in branch and on the phone, deal with issues effectively.

Supporting customers who experience fraud

• Increased our colleague numbers and created video guides demonstrating best practice for responding to reports of stolen cards and disputed transactions.
• Refined our fraud profiling to reduce the number of genuine customers who are interrupted by fraud checks.
• Put in place a dedicated team of senior leaders from across the business focussed on enabling colleagues to support customers, as well as to review the root causes of problems and to ensure that we have appropriate solutions in place.

Making overdraft borrowing easier to understand

• Providing text alerts to six million customers to help them avoid overdraft fees if they are able to pay in cleared funds, before they are charged.
• Simplifying our charges and fees.
• Introduced an education programme for our colleagues to enable them to support customers in financial difficulty or those showing emerging signs of financial stress.

Improving the Mortgage Journey

• Adopted much more digital processes, giving customers real time information on how their application is progressing.
• Streamlined and automated rate switching services, taking pressure off our frontline advisors, and freeing them up to help customers with more complex requirements.
• Barclays was recently voted by consumers and intermediaries Best Bank for Mortgages at the Your Mortgage Awards, which is encouraging recognition of the impact these initiatives are having for our customers.
• Further information around the improvements we have made to the Mortgage Journey can be found in our Q3, 2014 Spotlight Report.

A full breakdown of FCA reportable complaints is available on our website: www.barclays.com/complaints

Barclays is the only bank to currently publish its results quarterly, twice as often as required by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). We also provide context and analysis on the figures, sharing the key causes of complaints along with an action plan for addressing them.

*The apparent increase in investment complaints was caused by the Barclays Stockbrokers and Sharedealing Legal Entities migrating to BBPLC on 01 February 2014. Therefore, whilst the numbers show an 87 per cent increase, this is not based upon a like for like comparison.

Barclays Complaint Volumes Publication

Barclays as a Group is required to publish FCA reportable complaints for all of its legal entities that received more than 500 complaints in the six month period, and which were not resolved by close of business on the next business day with 'customer acceptance' of the proposed resolution. Barclays publishable legal entities to include: Barclays Bank PLC; Firstplus Financial Group PLC; Clydesdale Financial Services Limited and Woolwich Plan Managers Limited.

Barclays Bank PLC accounts for 98 per cent of all UK FCA reportable complaints and includes the following: Personal and Corporate Banking; Barclaycard; The Woolwich; Solution Personal Finance Ltd; Standard Life Cash Savings & Mortgages; Standard Life Cash Savings; and Standard Life Mortgages, Barclays Direct (formally ING Direct UK).

Barclays provides a full breakdown of all FCA reportable complaints data for all of its publishable legal entities on its website at www.barclays.com/complaints .

Complaint definition

An FCA reportable complaint is defined as being any expression of dissatisfaction which has not been resolved by close of business on the business day following its receipt.

Barclays is an international financial services provider engaged in personal banking, credit cards, corporate and investment banking and wealth management with an extensive presence in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia. Barclays' purpose is to help people achieve their ambitions - in the right way.

With over 300 years of history and expertise in banking, Barclays operates in over 50 countries and employs approximately 135,000 people. Barclays moves, lends, invests and protects money for customers and clients worldwide.

For further information about Barclays, please visit our website www.barclays.com.