FSA investigate bank complaints

The Financial Servicers Authority (FSA) is to take tough action following complaints from people who are angry with their banks' treatment of them.

A review by the FSA has forced five banks to make major changes to the way they handle customer complaints and two face further investigation.

Many of the bank complaints were due to poor quality complaint handling in branches and in call-centres and a failure of banks to learn from previous complaints.

Senior management were also found to be at fault for not taking complaints seriously, which the Financial Services Consumer Panel has called "disgraceful".

However, the FSA did discover that some banks were able to deal with complaints well, so it is not impossible for others to improve.

Indeed, the British Bankers Association has indicated that it is working with the industry to "bring all banks up to the standards of the best".

Kevin Still, director of Atlantic Financial Management says: "The volume of complaints about poor service and excessive fees continue.

Atlantic Financial Management deals with people with debt problems and these clients are often the ones to suffer where their cases aren't properly handled or passed to the right departments, often leading to further bank charges that could be avoided."

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