Lloyds 'most complained about bank'

TAXPAYER-backed Lloyds Banking Group was the most complained about financial services company during the second half of 2009, figures have shown.

The Financial Ombudsman Service received 9,952 individual complaints about the group's Lloyds TSB business during the six months to the end of December, although only half of these complaints were upheld.

It was closely followed by Barclays, which was the most complained about company during the first half of the year, with 9,836 people asking the ombudsman to settle disputes.

High street banks continued to dominate the tables, with the ombudsman receiving 5,476 complaints about Government-backed Royal Bank of Scotland's RBS and NatWest brands.

Santander, which includes the former Abbey and Bradford & Bingley brands and Alliance & Leicester, was complained about by 5,073 people, followed by HSBC at 3,048.

These five banks collectively accounted for more than half of the ombudsman's workload during the period.

All the complaints against Lloyds Banking Group and its subsidiaries added up to 20,190, a quarter of the total.

People were most likely to complain to the ombudsman about banking and credit products in relation to the banks, while many of them also received a high level of complaints about general insurance products, including controversial payment protection insurance - currently the most complained about individual product.

There were also a high level of complaints against credit card companies, with 1,918 complaints against MBNA, 1,609 against Capital One and 1,060 against Egg.

Overall the ombudsman received a record 82,136 complaints against all financial services firms during the six months, 18% more than during the first half of the year, which was itself a new high.