Spike In Lending Complaints Abates, Says Banking Ombudsman Scheme

Complaints to banks about lending-related matters fell markedly in the first three months of the year, according to data published today on the Banking Ombudsman Scheme’s complaints dashboard.

In total, banks received 22,132 complaints during the quarter, down 9 per cent on the previous quarter.

Lending complaints overall fell 21 per cent, after having risen 16 per cent in the previous quarter. The biggest swing was in home loan complaints - down 37 per cent after a rise of 19 per cent in the previous quarter.

The data also showed complaints about personal loans fell 18 per cent, while credit card complaints remained steady.

Banking Ombudsman Nicola Sladden previously attributed the rise in lending complaints in the last three months of 2021 to changes in the lending environment, including the introduction of amendments to the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act 2003, which require closer scrutiny of customers’ expenses when assessing loan applications.

Ms Sladden said she was pleased with the turnaround on home lending complaints, which she put down to banks and customers adjusting to the credit law changes, seasonal variation and possibly reduced demand for home loans as the housing market slowed.

Ms Sladden was also pleased to announce new features for the dashboard that will result in more transparency about the nature and extent of problems in the sector, and how banks respond to them.

The dashboard now displays detailed information about each bank’s complaints so the public can see what a bank’s customers complained about most, as well as how promptly the bank resolved complaints and whether customers were satisfied with the outcome. When a bank, for example, has an outage, the public will be able to see how that affected customers, and how well the bank dealt with the problem.

A new "trending" feature shows products and service delivery areas that have attracted significantly more or less complaints since the previous quarter.

The dashboard can be accessed here.

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