The financial regulator might soon release league tables of bank complaints, it has suggested.
Britain's banks could be rated and ranked in publicly accessible league tables, the financial regulator has suggested: a move which could encourage customers to switch bank accounts to a stronger performer.
The plans have been announced by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), which has released a statement on how much information it should release about its investigations to the wider world. Chief executive Hector Sants said that he saw making the information available as an "important regulatory tool", and that the organisation was "committed to being open and transparent".
This could mean the release of ranking tables on the amount of complaints received by the regulator about banks, and about how well the banks deal with these complaints. The proposal was praised by Steve Brooker at the National Consumer Council (NCC), who said that it was "welcome news".
He added: "[It] will encourage the industry to improve the way it deals with customers…companies will be encouraged to compete on quality and not just price."
However, the FSA's proposals met with a frostier response from the British Bankers' Association (BBA), the body which represents the UK's financial services firms. Speaking to the BBC, BBA policy director Peter Tyler said that it would be "difficult" for the regulator to put these bank complaints figures in the "correct context".
Compare current accounts via money.co.uk
