In the three months from April to June 2016 the Financial Ombudsman Service received less mortgage complaints but it upheld more cases in favour of the borrower.
The ombudsman received 3,727 enquiries complaining about residential mortgages and 2,620 new cases. Of the 467 it dealt with during those three months 44% were upheld.
For the whole year from July 2015 to June 2016, there were 16,614 enquiries and 11,282 new mortgage complaints were received. Of the 2,500 resolved by the ombudsman, 38% were upheld.
Mortgage endowment cases continue to come through with 948 enquires from April to June and 364 new cases. But only 15% of the 55 cases dealt with were upheld compared with 22% of the 387 resolved complaints over the year.
Residential mortgages are the sixth most complained about financial product. Payment protection insurance (PPI) is by far the most common complaint with 53,045 enquires and 43,569 new cases from April to June. Of the 7,402 cases resolved 57% were upheld.
The number of complaints about packaged bank accounts was second after PPI and stood at 9,547 enquiries and 7,315 new cases. This was followed by current accounts, car and motor cycle insurance and payday loans.
The ombudsman took on a total of 169,132 new cases across all financial products in the first half of 2016 – an increase of 3% on the previous period.
Of the total cases referred to the ombudsman in the first half of 2016, PPI made up 54% of new complaints – with 91,381 new cases (92,667 in the previous half year). For complaints about financial products other than PPI, the number has increased by 8% to 77,751.
One of the reasons for this is payday lending complaints more than doubled when compared to the last six months of 2015.
The average uphold rate over the six-month period was 48% – ranging from 3% to 92% across the individual businesses. 221 businesses feature in the data in total.
Chief ombudsman Caroline Wayman said: “The data we have published about complaints over the last decade or so helps to illustrate a challenging and volatile period for financial businesses. But the current signs are that complaints are now broadly levelling off and moving onto a more even keel.
“Although it’s a few years now since PPI complaints peaked, we have been receiving over 3,000 a week for six years running – despite wider expectations that numbers will fall. And we’re continuing to deal with the issues and uncertainties around PPI which remain a significant challenge for everyone involved.”
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