UK consumers filed over 40% more financial complaints with the Financial Ombudsman Service in the first half of 2024, compared to the same period last year.

The service, which resolves disputes between consumers and financial institutions, received 133,019 complaints between January 1 and June 30, 2024, up from 93,114 in 2023.

The banking and credit sector continues to rank as the most complained about sector and is the only one to experience a year-on-year increase in complaints.

In particular, UK consumers lodged 101,031 complaints in this sector in the first six months of 2024, compared to 56,690 over the same period in 2023.

More than half of all banking and credit complaints in 2024 were brought by professional representatives. In contrast, only a quarter of complaints were filed by professionals from January to June 2023.

These banking and credit complaints included issues about credit card disputes, unaffordable lending, car finance problems as well as fraud and scams.

Abby Thomas, chief Ombudsman, said:  “Businesses should put consumers at the heart of their service but the high level of complaints we receive shows that’s not always the case,”

“It’s vital that businesses are open and transparent with their customers, treating them with fairness and understanding.”

As fraud and scam complaints continue to rise, the UK has taken further action to combat scams and support victims of fraud.

The Payments Systems Regulator introduced new regulations requiring banks to reimburse victims of Authorized Push Payment fraud up to £85,000 as standard.

Additionally, Meta partnered with UK banks, including NatWest and Metro Bank, on a data-sharing initiative aimed at tackling fraud by enabling banks to share intelligence with Meta to help prevent scams on the platform.