The number of complaints upheld against networks and nationals by the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) have dropped in the last half year, figures show.
Half yearly complaints data published by the FOS this morning showed that adviser networks and nationals had fewer complaints brought against them than in the previous six months, while the FOS' uphold rate has also dropped in some cases.
Overall, complaints made to the FOS in the second half of 2013 (excluding payment protection insurance (PPI)) dropped by 8% compared with H1.
But across the last year total complaints increased by more than a third on 2012.
Naming names
Sesame led the way with 213 new complaints across the spectrum of mortgages, general insurance, PPI, investment and life and pensions, but this was down from 292 cases in the first half of the year. The network, which is owned by Friends Provident, had about a quarter of cases upheld against it.
Rival network Openwork saw 101 consumer gripes, mostly about PPI and life and pension advice, of which 26% were upheld. In the first half of the year the restricted network had 32% of its 142 cases upheld.
Personal Touch Financial Services also saw both complaints against it and their uphold rate drop to 78 and 13% respectively. The network had received 88 complaints in the previous six months of which a fifth were upheld.
TenetConnect, a new entrant on the list, were faced with some life and pension advice complaints over the past six months - of the 38 new cases it received, 30 were for life and pensions and more than half of complaints were upheld.
Positive Solutions also had more than half of complaints against it upheld. However the number of new complaints brought dropped by 13 to 49, leaving it with roughly the same amount of gripes upheld as in H1.
St. James's Place Wealth Management bucked the overall positive trend as its complaints numbers stuck at around 96 but its uphold rate surged from 27% to 40%. The company received most complaints about its investment and life and pensions advice.
Minimum of 30 complaints
The ombudsman's figures only lists firms that have received at least 30 new cases and have had resolved at least 30 cases in the six-month period, making up around 95% of cases handled by the FOS.
The average uphold rate over the six-month period was 51%, ranging from 2% to 94% across the individual businesses.
The big providers featured highly on the FOS' latest list. Annuity provider Phoenix Life attracted more than 400 complaints.
Last July the FOS had reported a surge in new complaints against financial services firms.
