The Complaints Commission has published its annual report for 2020/2021 which reviews how the financial services regulators consider complaints. Highlights include:
- the Commissioner dealt with 393 complaints in the year to 31 March 2021;
- 46% of concluded cases were about the FCA’s oversight of firms, rules or schemes. The remaining 54% of cases involved 4 PRA concluded cases;
- 90% of cases were dealt with in 8 weeks;
- 60 recommendations and suggestions were made to the FCA and 2 to the PRA;
- there was a 44% increase on the previous year in complaints against the FCA – this was in part due to an increase in complaints relating to the FCA’s regulation of London Capital & Finance plc.
The report also sets out the key themes that emerged from the Commissioner’s review. These are:
- FCA supervision and regulation of firms;
- FCA and rule making;
- The FCA data breach;
- Vulnerable complainants; and
- Large banks: suspension of dividend payments.
The FCA has issued a report in response which addresses these key themes and looks at areas for improvement.