The Financial Ombudsman Service – the independent organisation that settles disputes between consumers and financial companies – today publishes its annual review covering the 2010/11 financial year.
The review shows that during the year:

• the ombudsman handled over a million front-line enquiries and complaints from consumers – around 4,000 each working day
• around 1 in 5 of the initial consumer enquiries we received turned into a formal dispute requiring the involvement of our adjudicators and ombudsman – a record 206,121 new cases, up 26% on the previous year
• 51% of the new cases were about the sale of payment protection insurance (PPI) with the number more than doubling to 104,597 – the highest number ever received in a year about a single financial product

Natalie Ceeney, chief executive and chief ombudsman, said:

This year has been the busiest in our ten-year history – with over 200,000 disputes referred to us and a million front-line enquiries. This reflects the increased confidence of an ever more diverse range of consumers getting in touch about a wider range of problems and issues.

Aside from PPI cases, over the year we’ve seen encouraging signs of improvements in the........Read more HERE