Banks are awful, says the FSA

Email received 08:47, 29/09/2011:

Dear Mr. Skinner

I have to say that your blog reflects the UK: a nation of bloody whingers.

This was well demonstrated by the release of the FSA’s figures this week that shows all your citizens do is complain.

In fact, I wholly expect you to post the headline today that says something like: “Banks are awful, says the FSA”.

No doubt this is because you have seen the Financial Services Authority (FSA) figures for customer complaints between January and June 2011 or, as I call them, the Whinging Whiners Report.

I wholly expect you to beat up Barclays for having over 250,000 customer complaints in under six months, over half of which were upheld according to the FSA.

As you can see from the figures, Barclays was the subject of 251,563 complaints of which 53% were upheld in the customers' favour.

I expect you to note that Barclays was closely followed by Lloyds TSB, just one division of Lloyds Banking Group, which received 181,907 complaints between January and June 2011; and that Santander was third, with 168,888 complaints ... a great improvement.

I reckon you might even point out that the main complaints were around personal payment protection insurance plans (PPI), which accounted for two-thirds of the near 150,000 complaints – 149,925 PPI complaints were referred to the FSA in the first half of 2011, a 54% increase from the previous six months.

Whatever you do, I don't care as I know you'll just be whinging, like most of the citizens of your glum nation.

So why am I writing to you?

Well, my point is this: I read your blog regularly and have to say that, like many of our citizens, you are one of the nation’s biggest whingers.

All you do is blog on and on and on and on about innovation, disruption and how banks are crap.  Well, I’ve had enough of it and from now on will only read your optimistic blogs.

Yours sincerely,

Donna Karen Abuttu
Head of Customer Services
Large UK Bank plc