Cost of living: Call for swift action on financial disputes

Victims of poor service from financial firms should have problems dealt with speedily, particularly during uncertain economic times, an ombudsman has said.

It is crucial that when problems arise they are "addressed quickly", the chief financial ombudsman said.

Campaigners have also been calling for a faster response for fraud victims.

Earlier this year, consumer group Which? said people who had lost money faced a waiting lottery when trying to report the situation to their bank.

Average waiting times can range from 16 seconds to more than 30 minutes depending on the bank, tests by Which? found. It said more priority should be given to distressed victims.

The Financial Ombudsman is the independent arbiter of disputes that cannot be resolved between financial firms and their customers.

In the last financial year, it received nearly 9,370 complaints about the response to so-called authorised scams compared with 7,770 the previous year. These are usually cases when people have been tricked in to transferring money to a fraudster who they believed to be a genuine trader or organisation.

The ombudsman is finding in favour of the customer in three-quarters of these cases, which may require banks to refund the money lost.

"In this period of economic uncertainty it is more important than ever that where problems do arise, they are addressed quickly," said Nausicaa Delfas, interim chief financial ombudsman.

The Financial Ombudsman Service said it received a "high number" of complaints about fraud and scams in the year to April.

The 17,500 complaints the service received about fraud and scams included schemes that used social media or which related to fake investments.

Overall, the service received 165,263 new complaints about financial businesses in the year to April. The vast majority (108,065) were about banking and credit.

Poor customer service dominated the disputes, with cases including a lack of attention to detail by firms, and examples of sending personal information to the wrong address.

Separate figures show that some consumers have been violent and abusive towards shop workers.

Data from the Institute of Customer Service revealed 44% of frontline service staff have experienced hostility from customers in the past six months - a rise from 35% during the previous six months.

A quarter of staff who have faced increased hostility said they believed the increase was partly due to the sharp increase in the cost of living and stress this had placed on customers.