It’s that time of the year again when the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) publishes the complaints data for the second half of the previous year, and the numbers show a massive drop in complaints particularly in the insurance and pure protection product group.
In fact, it’s the insurance cluster – compared to its financial services peers banking and credit cards, decumulation and pensions, home finance, and investments – that saw the biggest decline in complaints received by firms.
In H2 2020, there were 1.02 million complaints for products under insurance and pure protection; in H1, 1.8 million. Of all the insurance and pure protection products, it was frontrunner payment protection insurance (PPI) that registered the steepest fall (at 77%) from the first half of the year.
Here are the insurance and pure protection products and their respective complaints volumes in H2:
|
Product |
Number of complaints |
|
PPI |
256,412 |
|
Other general insurance |
229,506 |
|
Motor & transport |
197,027 |
|
Property |
100,307 |
|
Medical / health |
60,670 |
|
Travel |
46,256 |
|
Warranty |
35,557 |
|
Assistance |
28,425 |
|
Whole of life / term assurance / critical illness |
23,674 |
|
Pet |
22,254 |
|
General insurance packaged multi products |
9,360 |
|
Income protection and other accident, sickness and unemployment |
4,062 |
|
Other pure protection |
1,333 |
|
Protection packaged multi products |
259 |
Overall, the most complained about product came from the banking and credit cards family. Current accounts – with 503,813 complaints in the period – made up 23% of all the complaints. PPI came in second, accounting for 12%; credit cards, 11%; other general insurance products, 11%; and motor & transport insurance, 9%.
There were a total of 2.19 million complaints received in in the second half of 2020. According to the FCA, the figure is 26% lower than the sum posted in the first half, and also the lowest recorded since H2 of 2016.
