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LONDON, April 9 (Reuters) - Barclays Bank Plc hastopped the list of the most complained-about British bank,although the number of reported grievances against financialservices companies has fallen by 15 percent overall.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said on Wednesday thatalmost 310,000 new complaints from retail customers had beenopened against Barclays from July to December last year.
That marked a fall of 17 percent from the first half of theyear, but was still around 50,000 more than second-ranked LloydsBank Plc.
However, Lloyds was the only financial services company tosee complaints edge a fraction higher. Credit card issuer MBNA,Lloyds-owned Bank of Scotland and National Westminster Bank,owned by part-privatised Royal Bank of Scotland, tookthe last three slots in the table.
"No firm wants to top this particular list, and they allshould be striving to ensure that customers are being treatedfairly and not given cause to complain," said FCA ChiefExecutive Martin Wheatley, releasing the latest complaints data.
"This is an indication that firms seem to be puttingcustomers at the heart of their business. However, there isclearly more for us all to do to show consumers their interestscome first."
The majority of customer complaints still centre on paymentprotection insurance, a mis-selling scandal for which banks haveset aside more than 20 billion pounds ($33.5 billion) forcompensation claims, followed by gripes about other insuranceproducts, current accounts, credit cards and savings. ($1 = 0.5970 British Pounds) (Reporting by Kirstin Ridley; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
