Barclays Bank has overtaken Lloyd's TSB as the source of the most payment protection insurance (PPI) complaints, according to figures from the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).
The watchdog revealed that, for the first six months of 2012, 19,522 people complained about PPI products sold by Barclays.
This is up from the 12,862 new complaints recorded in the same period of 2011.
In total, the FOS received 135,170 new complaints in the first half of 2012, and 85,562, or 63%, of these concerned PPI.
Lloyd’s TSB dropped to second place in the PPI complaints table, with 9,493 new complaints received in the first half of this year – a significant drop from the 16,965 recorded in H1 2011.
Aviva Insurance UK came in at 19th on the list, with 388 new complaints, more than doubling last year’s figures, which showed 152 PPI complaints were made.
Surge
Allianz Insurance also experienced a surge in PPI complaints, with 214, up from 22, and Legal & General was the source of 50 complaints made in the first half of this year, compared with 23 last year.
Providers seeing a reduction in complaints were Axa UK, with 22, compared with 32 in H1 2011, and Liverpool Victoria Insurance Company, which had zero, compared with last year’s single PPI complaint.
Natalie Ceeney, chief executive and chief ombudsman, said: “The volume of PPI complaints doubled in the first half of 2012 – and has continued to increase since then with up to 1,500 new cases now arriving each day.”
She added: “We’ve also seen an increasing shift towards consumers doing it themselves rather than using a claims manager – with up to half of all new complaints now coming directly from consumers without paid-for representation, compared to less than 20% a year ago.
“This means our consumer front-line is busier than ever – taking over 3,000 calls on PPI a day and bringing much needed clarity to confused and bewildered consumers.”
Barclays response
Paul Maddox, managing director of customer service at Barclays, responded to the new FOS figures, saying that the bank had been working hard to improve complaints handling: “Excluding PPI, complaints to the FOS about Barclays are down 8 per cent to 4,668, which is the lowest level for three years.
“These figures further demonstrate our sustained progress in improving customer service, with Financial Services Authority reportable complaints down by 55 per cent in our retail bank over the last 18 months."
He added: "We are already doing more to improve service and reduce complaints even further in future.”
For all the latest industry news direct to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter.
