Complaints and compliments

 

See how well we're dealing with customer complaints

Over the last year we have listened to what you, our customers, have told us about our complaints process and how we can improve. This has confirmed that making it easy to complain, coupled with our speed of response, our ability to be flexible and to resolve issues professionally is very important to you.

As such, we are taking steps to improve the way we handle complaints to better meet your needs. What improvements have been made to date?

  • We have examined every aspect of the complaints journey to help ensure we can deal with your issues quickly, sympathetically and make it as easy as possible for you.
  • In the second half of 2011, we redesigned the complaints pages on our website to make them more prominent, more engaging and making it easier for you to raise both positive and negative feedback with us. We also introduced podcasts to help you understand how our fair fees policy works and ensure you don't unnecessarily incur charges.
  • A new dedicated Customer Care Team has been created to support you and our branch colleagues with complex complaints that can't be resolved instantly when you are in the branch. The team will do their best to resolve the complaint for you, there and then and where that's not possible will ensure you leave the branch fully informed, knowing what will happen next.

What's in plan for the remainder of 2012?

  • We will invest in training and support for our people so we see it from your perspective and ensure our people are empowered to resolve your issue quickly and effectively, or escalate to the right person who can own and resolve it for you.
  • We will continue with our plans to create specialist areas of expertise and knowledge, ensuring quick easy access to experts who understand and know how to resolve your problem.
  • We will remain focussed on the little but important things that make a difference: resolving complaints quickly, sympathetically and to your satisfaction.

In 2012 we will demonstrate to you our commitment to making banking better for you.

So you can see how we're doing, we've provided a summary of our complaints data for the second half of 2011 below. Click on one of our three companies to see how we're doing.

This information has also been shared with the Financial Services Authority.

Publication Data No. of complaints opened No. of complaints closed Complaints closed within 8 weeks Closed complaints upheld by firm1
Banking 65,441 73,333 94.3% 34.8%
Home Finance 3,501 4,064 89.4% 42.9%
General Insurance and Pure Protection 45,296 39,816 21.9% 73.5%
Decumulation2, Life & Pensions 1,654 1,473 62.3% 26.7%
Investments 999 1,039 70.4% 51.6%

Banking: We have 2.7 opened complaints per 1,000 relevant banking accounts. We closed 73,333 complaints.

Home Finance: We have 4.4 opened complaints for every 1,000 home finance loans.

General Insurance and Pure Protection: We have 1.3 opened complaints per 1,000 general insurance and pure protection products. This excludes complaints relating to payment protection insurance which HSBC stopped selling in November 2007. With PPI complaints included, we received 21.4 complaints per 1,000 relevant accounts. The number of PPI complaints that have been closed has increased following the outcome of the judicial review proceedings between the British Bankers Association and the Financial Services Authority & Financial Ombudsman Service.

Decumulation, Life & Pensions: We have 5.2 opened complaints per 1,000 decumulation, life and pensions products.

Investments: We have 0.8 opened complaints per 1,000 investment products.

Publication Data No. of complaints opened No. of complaints closed Complaints closed within 8 weeks Closed complaints upheld by firm1
Banking N/A N/A N/A N/A
Home Finance N/A N/A N/A N/A
General Insurance and Pure Protection 207 207 98.1% 36.7%
Decumulation2, Life & Pensions 163 158 99.4% 51.9%
Investments 7 6 100.0% 66.6%

General Insurance and Pure Protection: We received 0.1 complaints per 1,000 general insurance and pure protection products.

Decumulation, Life & Pensions: We received 0.5 complaints per 1,000 decumulation, life and pensions products.

Investments: We received 0.6 complaints per 1,000 investment products

Publication Data No. of complaints opened No. of complaints closed Complaints closed within 8 weeks Closed complaints upheld by firm1
Banking 10 16 87.5% 56.2%
Home Finance N/A N/A N/A N/A
General Insurance and Pure Protection N/A N/A N/A N/A
Decumulation2, Life & Pensions 10 9 66.7% 33.3%
Investments 385 428 82.0% 65.6%

We received 0.3 complaints per 1,000 products provided.

Notes
1 'Complaints upheld by firm' refers to the percentage of complaints that the bank has found in the customer's favour either in whole or part.
2 'Decumulation' is the way in which customers can turn their accumulated assets into an income. This can be done, for example, to help provide an income for retirement.

See how we're doing compared to the rest
For further information and published complaints data, including other UK banks, visit:
Financial Services Authority
Financial Ombudsman Service

Complaints History
H1 2011 published complaints (1 January - 30 June 2011)
H2 2010 published complaints (1 July - 31 December 2010)

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