FOS disputes against IFAs fall 1%; bank complaints up 2%

The number of unresolved complaints against IFAs referred to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) fell 1% last year, compared to a 2% rise in disputes against banks.

IFAs were responsible for just 2% of complaints to the FOS in 2009/10, compared to 61% for banks.

FOS says the fall in complaints against IFAs reflects "the levelling-off generally of complaints to the ombudsman service about investments and pensions".

Of the complaints received about investment products, 12% were IFA related, though this more than doubled to 28% for complaints against IFAs about pensions.

The FOS upheld 39% of complaints against IFAs.

Mortgage intermediaries accounted for 18% of the complaints about mortgages.

The proportions of cases involving life insurance and investment product-providers, fell by 3%.

Only 1% of complaints involved income protection and critical illness and critical illness cover

On the rise in complaints against banks, FOS it relates to the 85% increase in complaints about current accounts, as well as the increased volume of complaints about  controversial payment protection insurance (PPI) during the year, which rose 58%.

The FOS upheld 94% of complaints against intermediaries over the selling payment PPI.

Last week, the Competition Commission (CC) provisionally banned the selling of PPI at the point-of-sale to stop it being bolted-on to the sale of an associated credit product such as a personal loan.

FOS resolved a total of 166,321 cases in the financial year 2009/2010, a 46% increase on the 113,949 cases resolved in the previous year, and the highest number in any year since the ombudsman service was set up in the year 2000.