The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has issued new rules to improve complaint handling and stop expensive phone calls.
Financial services firms will no longer be allowed to charge customers premium rates when they make telephone calls to ask for assistance or to complain.
Under the new rules, firms will have longer to resolve complaints less formally. This is intended to allow firms to resolve more complaints first time rather than try to meet the current one-day target.
Firms will now have three days to address a complaint to a consumer’s satisfaction. The financial regulator says the increased time will allow for better and easier resolution for a greater number of complaints, benefiting both consumers and firms. It also expects this change to result in fewer consumers having to take their complaints further.
If a complaint is resolved during this three-day period, firms will be required to send their customers a simpler, template message, informing them of their right to take their complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Firms must also report all complaints to the FCA, currently, they only have to report complaints that take longer than a day to resolve. From September 2016 the FCA’s will publish the data biannually so consumers can compare firms.
Christopher Woolard, director of strategy and competition at the FCA, said: “Our rules will help deliver the quicker, easier and fairer resolution to complaints that consumers want.
“Getting this right is also vital for firms. A properly resolved complaint can keep a customer happy, and protect the firm’s reputation. But, more than that, effective complaints handling systems can act as an early warning system for firms.”
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