Number of complaints about spread betting, derivatives received by UK fin ombudsman falls in Q1 2018/2019

The UK Financial Ombudsman Service has just posted its statistics for the first quarter of 2018/2019, with the numbers highlighting a trend seen in preceding quarters, that is, that complaints about products like foreign currency, derivatives and spread betting accounted for a small portion of the total, whereas customers were pretty active in complaining about PPI issues.

In the quarter from April to June 2018, the Ombudsman received 183,199 enquiries and 107,827 new complaints – with 11,371 complaints passed to an ombudsman for a final decision. On average, the Ombudsman upheld 35% of the complaints resolved.

PPI remained the most complained-about financial product, with 55,223 new complaints. Payday loans were the second most complained-about product, with 10,979 new complaints.

There are no complaints about foreign currency products during the period.

The number of enquiries about spread betting fell from 66 to 51 in annual terms. The percentage of cases upheld was meager 13% in the quarter to end-June 2018, compared to 15% in the same quarter a year earlier.

The number of enquiries about derivatives stood at humble 49 in the quarter to end-June 2018, pretty much the same number as the 50 enquiries about such products received in the equivalent quarter a year earlier. Only 19 enquiries were referred to an ombudsman and only 11% of these cases were upheld. Let’s note that, in the year-ago period, the portion of cases upheld was 28%.

Let’s recall that in its Annual Review 2017/18, the UK Financial Ombudsman Service highlighted some new themes and issues raised by UK investors, with cryptocurrencies being among such issues. The Ombudsman said back then that cryptocurrencies may be involved in certain types of financial activities and then the Ombudsman can look into complaints about such activities. For example, if the issue relates to trading in CFDs based on cryptocurrencies.