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September 26, 2014 
Daniel Lee Barclays bank is the most complained about bank of 2014 according to official figures from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
This comes in what hasn’t been a great week for the bank as it was revealed that Barclays was the most-fined financial institution in Britain after recently paying a whopping £38m fine for failings over the protection of their client’s assets.
It was revealed in the official figures released by the FCA that they received just short of 280,000 complaints in the first half of this year and the vast majority of these complaints came about payment protection insurance.
Both Barclays and Santander received the most complaints about their current accounts from customers in the first half of this year from January to June. These were the second most complained about product as they saw a 3% rise compared to the last half pf last year.
The Spanish bank, Santander weighed in with the most complaints, 91,158 about their banking services in the first half of the year and hot on their heels was Barclays with a grand total of 88,792 complaints.
Both of these banks were way out in front of some of their biggest competitors when it came to the amount of complaints. HSBC were the next closest bank having received 65,865 complaints and it was NatWest with 62,175 and Lloyds on 42,245 who brought up the rear.
These banks all offer a paid for bank account and with the estimated 10 million of these accounts active today, and the number of complaints about these accounts now hitting 400 a day, it’s estimated that 146,000 complaints will be made about packaged bank accounts by the end of the year. That’s a staggering increase of 870%.
Coming as no great surprise is the fact that PPI remained the most complained about product in the first half of this year. The amount of complaints according to the FCA, were down by 11% compared to the last half of last year.
The figures though, show that there have been a total of 2,493,729 complaints about all financial firms in the period from the start of the year to June. Payment protection insurance is a financial product that has been widely mis-sold by all of the big banks and numerous lenders in the UK.
If you’re unsure whether you may or may not have been sold PPI by a bank or lender, check out our comprehensive list of the main culprits when it came to mis-selling. Here’s where you can find out who sold PPI.
If you know that you’ve been mis-sold PPI and you would like to start a claim today, fill in our online form and we’ll send out a claim pack to you complete with a pre-paid envelope so you can fill in all the documents and send them right back to us so that we can start the ball rolling with your complaint.
Barclays Complaints
October 23, 2014 Daniel Lee Santander is a tree of multiple building societies’ and banks that have merged or been bought out over the years. Originally founded in 1857 in the town of Santander, Spain, it’s recent aggressive policy of growth has seen it become a big figure in todays banking world.
The danger of rapid expansion is that focus is set on profit and growth, and not on ensuring things are done compliantly, ethically or for the needs of it’s customers, which inevitably has resulted in fines and scandals, including the millions of Santander PPI claims that have been made.
Perhaps three of the most notable UK parts of the Santader Group are Abbey National, Bradford & Bingley and Alliance & Leicester.
Formed in 1944 following a merger between the Abbey Road Building Society and National Building Society, Abbey National as it became known was the first building society to demutualize, meaning it went from being owned by its members to a becoming a public limited company.
After a merger between Bradford Equitable Building Society and the Bingley Permanent Building Society in 1964 Bradford & Bingley Building Society was formed.
Alliance & Leicester had its roots firmly into Leicester Permanent Benefit Society since 1852. Leicester Permanent Benefit Society became Alliance & Leicester in 1985 following a merge with the Alliance Building Society.
Santander as it is today has definitely played a huge part in the recent UK and global scandals that have come to light in recent years. The biggest financial scandal ever to hit the UK, the mis-selling of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI), and the more recent Packaged Bank Accounts scandal have cost UK consumers in excess of £60 BILLION according to our stats.
With a far from clean record, Santander have never really been able to obtain the respect that Abbey, Bradford & Bingley and Alliance & Leicester once held. Indeed, between 2007 and 2010 Santander where ranked the high streets worst bank for customer service, in the J D Power UK Retail Banking Satisfaction Study.
That’s not to say that the banks that form part of the group have faired any better…
In 2005, Abbey was fined £800,000, for mis-handling mortgage endowment complaints raised by over 5,000 customers.
Alliance & Leicester had a bad year in 2008 due to being fined £7 MILLION for Payment Protection Insurance failings, as they did not consider the customer’s needs. This remains the largest fine handed out specifically for the mis-selling of PPI.
Santander’s past two years have been particularly bad for their ever decreasing levels of trust by it’s customers. In 2012 they were fined £1.5 MILLION for failing to clarify Financial Service Compensation Scheme (FSCS) on structured products.
Only this year in March, Santander have been caught out in another scheme, they were fined £12.4 MILLION as they failed to advise customers suitably and failed to ensure that their financial promotions where correct and the customers understood them and they were not mis-leading.
When will they learn?
With all the fines Santander and it’s subsidiaries have had to pay out over the years, it’s somewhat unsurprising they’ve set aside almost £1 BILLION for compensation for Santander PPI claims by those who have been immorally sold PPI policies they didn’t need, want, ask for or even know they had.
With numerous Santander PPI claims still on-going Santander are continuously being haunted by their bad past. Furthermore, with an estimated 7 million people yet to stake their claim, it’s clear the bill will continue to rise.
As Santander have previously been voted the worst bank to handle customer service, would you feel comfortable with dealing with their customer service department? Your Money Claim will take the stress and hassle away for you by dealing with Santander throughout the entire claims process.
Start your Santander PPI claim today with the industry experts. Our No Win No Fee* policy insists that you get the best experience possible in claiming your compensation. Furthermore, our claims form takes less than two minutes to complete.
So why not start you claim today.
Santander PPI Claims
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September 25, 2014 Daniel Lee Douglas Flint, HSBC’s chairman, appears to have had a ‘light-bulb’ moment!
The boss of one of the most heavily fined banks in the world seems to want his bank to turn over a new leaf. Speaking recently at the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments (CISI) launch to try and persuade financial service staff to become ‘whistleblowers’ and to speak up about violations of their company polices, it sounds like he’s changed his ways.
Flint has backed up a campaign called “Speak Up” that urges financial staff to voice their opinions on corporate wrongdoings. He claims that delayed whistleblowing can be seen as sinister by outsiders to the industry.
Whilst the headlines appear positive, will Mr Flint back up his claims and put plans in place to remove the barriers in place that currently deter staff from raising issues?
Executives and senior management decide on salary and bonus structures within a business. They also determine the environment in which staff work in.
By placing emphasis on, and encouraging a bonus led culture where basic salaries are low and heavily subsidised by sales led bonuses, they are creating an environment that, whether directly or indirectly, inevitably leads to manipulation, mis-selling and breaches of regulation.
Furthermore, by putting in place bonuses for management based on the performance of frontline staff, this encourages management to ‘turn a blind eye’ to regulatory breaches as there are financial gains to be had via bonuses, and senior management to please by hitting targets set.
It is specifically these types of set-ups that have led to two huge mis-selling scandals. The first one we probably have all heard about, the PPI scandal. The second is following hot on the heels of PPI, and it’s the mis-selling of Packaged Bank Accounts.
It’s all well and good Mr Flint, to be speaking out and claiming you want whistleblowers to come forward to report issues, but actions speak louder than words and you must create an environment that allows staff to feel comfortable in doing so.
Ask yourself a question…Would you feel comfortable raising concerns to your manager if your basic salary was barely enough to make ends meet, if you were heavily reliant on your bonus, if your performance affected your managers bonus, if your performance affected your managers’ managers’ bonus, if you risked losing your job for raising a concern, if you risked losing your job for not hitting your target? It’s hardly conducive to creating an open and trustworthy environment is it.
Flint, a close personal friend of the CISI chairman Alan Yarrow, told the audience of his ideal that financial service staff must feel comfortable in speaking out to their manager if they feel the company is exploiting customers or if they notice any wrongdoings in the companies polices. He claimed to recognise there is a huge problem and the well-being of staff should be hugely important. He continued to say that staff who do voice their opinions on the behaviour of the banks, should be celebrated not condemned.
Mr Flint said that if whistleblowers didn’t come forward then the bank could become toxic. Actions do rapidly become toxic, due to some financial staff being given more money than others in bonuses. Bonus money to mis-sell products such as PPI and Packaged Bank Accounts.
Reportedly, the US Securities & Exchange Commission has paid out a whopping $150 MILLION to the whistleblowers of corporations. With this, some have become millionaires by making other people exploit innocent customers. We would welcome such an organisation in the UK to encourage employees to step forward with concerns.
Many employees have been punished for speaking up against wrongdoings to their bosses. There is a huge risk in all job sectors to speak out, in some cases against your boss, due to the high chance of losing your job or being ostracised by fellow colleagues. The CISI recognise this and have announced plans to set up a “financial hardship fund” which would ensure financial safety to any who wishes to speak up and become whistleblowers about wrongs they see in their workplace.
Douglas Flint’s speech continued, trying to discuss how banks should be run. However, he failed to mention that HSBC, his very own bank, where fined £1.2 BILLION in 2012 by American authorities for allowing Mexican drug cartels to launder money via HSBC’s branch network. He also failed to mention his banks part in the huge PPI mis-selling scandal, in the Packaged Bank Account scandal, and about the numerous fined imposed on HSBC for serious regulatory failings.
Douglas Flint claims he has noticed his own wrongdoings and quite clearly spoken out about them, maybe he is trying persuading others to do the same.
Our opinion is that it’s too little, too late. Whisteblowers should be encouraged to come forward by providing a safe and secure environment to do so. You’ve had many chances to put that in place and you’ve failed Mr Flint.
Your actions, and that of your bank and other lenders, has led to BILLIONS being illegally taken from your MILLIONS of customers.
It’s time for customers to fight back.
Your Money Claim are the industry experts in claiming mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance and Packaged Bank Accounts.
Your Money Claim deals with banks such as HSBC every day of the week, and we are used to beating them!
We can carry out all the checks via our fast-track system to see whether you’ve been sold PPI, or a Packaged Bank Account and we deal with the case every step of the way. So, whether your account / loan / mortgage / credit card is still active, or if it’s settled some time ago, we could help.
Start your claim today.
Whistleblowers
June 8, 2015 Daniel Lee With the new introduction of a fast-track bank account switching service, allowing customers to switch bank accounts within 7 days, one million have taken advantage of the service and changed banks.
Whilst this is good news on the face of things, could the banks be taking advantage of those who are choosing to switch by mis-selling them a Packaged Bank Account?
Banks are having to start to fight for customers like never before. Whereas in the past when people chose who to bank with, that was generally who they stuck with throughout life, people are starting to pick and choose and move their money where they’re going to receive the best terms at any given time.
It’s true that banks are still not really delivering what we as a nation should be expecting, so much so that the banks are facing a full scale competition enquiry due to suspicions that our banks are liaising with each other to ensure real competition and offers do not enter the market.
However, we are starting to see small signs, very small signs, that a new generation of banks may be about to shake up the market and offer long term attractive incentives for customers to move their accounts.
Only time will tell whether the UK finally sees some real competition in what is clearly a failing market.
With banks previously having to reduce the amount it was charging customers for going into an unauthorised overdraft, banks needed to come up with a new way of replacing that revenue that was being lost. Whilst bank charges remain higher than payday loan charges, banks did find a way of making more money out of it’s every day customers.
The introduction of Packaged Bank Accounts has generated the banks BILLIONS in profits. A monthly fee in exchanged for ‘perks’ such as mobile phone insurance, travel insurance and vehicle breakdown cover to name a few, has proven to be a real money spinner for the banks at the expense of the customer. Now where have we heard that before? The PPI scandal perhaps?!
We’ve researched the figures that are available and we believe compensating customers for the mis-sale of these Packaged Bank Accounts could cost the banks £BILLIONS. With 10 MILLION of these accounts still active, and being sold on a daily basis, it’s thought to affect 1 in 5 UK adults.
So, whilst we welcome the fact that people are starting to shop around where they place their bank account, we urge caution that you don’t fall foul to the new mis-selling scandal.
With millions of these accounts being sold historically you could make a claim, even if the account is no longer active.
Your Money Claim are the industry experts in mis-sold PPI and mis-sold Packaged Bank Accounts. Dealing with your case from first to last, carrying out the checks and dealing with the banks, you can sit back safe in the knowledge that your claim is being handled by the experts.
So, why delay, let Your Money Claim look after your case.
Bank account
September 24, 2014 Daniel Lee Earlier in the year, we did a piece on Barclays mis-leading their customers and giving an unfair edge to high speed traders and how a lawsuit resulted in a fall in the bank’s “dark pool trading” venue of 79%.
It’s come to light that they could be facing up to £1.2 billion extra in legal costs and fines as they’re battling to settle the investigation which was started against them by the New York Attorney general.
This has all come about after Barclays PPI bill hit a staggering £5 billion to cover the costs of the PPI that they’ve been mis-selling.
In the second quarter of this year, the bank has already set aside more than £1.2 billion, £900 million for mis-sold PPI and the rest to cover other “legacy” matters. With the dark pool investigation still on-going, an analyst at Sanford C Bernstein has stated that they may need to start looking at setting aside yet more money to cover continuing costs.
In order to settle the fraud allegations that they’re facing relating to the “dark pool trading”, they are looking at having to pay up to £200m. This is the same case that we brought to you earlier in the year with claims that the bank was taking part in a “flagrant pattern of fraud, deception and dishonesty with Barclays clients as well as the investing public”.
On top of this, they are faced with a potential £700m charge to deal with the fallout from an industry wide investigation into the manipulation of the currency trading market which saw as much as $5.3 trillion traded every single day.
They could also be facing a £300m charge in the coming months. This is to compensate customers who were mis-sold products that were meant to help them hedge interest rates. In the midst of all these possible fines, the Barclays’ chief executive, Antony Jenkins has come out and said that they’re working hard to settle all outstanding legal issues and to put all of this behind them.
One thing that won’t be going away any time soon for Barclays is the PPI mis-selling scandal. Payment protection insurance was widely mis-sold by all of the banks, not just Barclays. If you think you have a PPI claim, you can download one of our PPI claim forms here and send it back to us and we’ll start your claim immediately.
Barclays Dark Pool
September 24, 2014 Daniel Lee You should be well aware by now that the banks in this country are consistently finding that they’re being fined for one thing or another. Recently, the majority of the fines have been for Payment Protection Insurance (PPI).
That isn’t saying that all of the bank fines have been for PPI, there’s been a number of other banks that have been fined for different things. For example, Royal Bank of Scotland was fined £15 million for their poor mortgage advice.
The likes of Barclays, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank are among the banks that could be liable to face “material and widespread” fines for a variety of mis-conducts like the rigging of currency rates and, for the likes of Barclays, the mis-selling of PPI.
All of this information has come from Fitch Ratings who have said that other top banks around the world like Credit Suisse and Bank of America are amongst the banks that could be facing further fines and could well be exposed to ‘litigation and other conduct risks’.
It’s not new news that all around the world; banks are struggling to restore consumer confidence after the financial crisis began in 2007/08. That much has been evident in the last few years and the banks have made it much worse for themselves with the PPI mis-selling scandal coming to light too.
Bringing the news a bit closer to home and stepping away from talking about global banks, there is going to be change at Santander, the UKs fifth biggest lender.
The former Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Nathan Bostock will be appointed as the new chief at Santander as Ana Botin has left the bank recently to become the group executive chairman of Banco Santander following her father’s death, Emilio Botin.
Santander has set aside almost £1 billion for the mis-selling of PPI and this is including the bank’s subsidiaries such as Alliance & Leicester and Abbey National. Shortly after this announcement was made, the then chief exec of the bank, Ana Botin came out and stated that she was happy with the state of the bank’s financial figures.
This is a much smaller amount when compared to the money set aside by the other banks such as the Lloyds Banking Group which includes the likes of Halifax and Bank of Scotland and it also pales in comparison to the likes of Natwest, RBS, Barclays and HSBC.
All of these banks plus a great number of other lenders have all mis-sold PPI on a huge scale in this country and it’s no surprise to see the likes of Barclays included in the list of major banks that can expect to receive fines in the coming years.
If you think you may have been mis-sold PPI or you know someone who may have been mis-sold PPI, why not start your claim with us today. If you think you know someone who may have been mis-sold PPI, why not use our refer a friend scheme?
Big Bank Fines
