RBS fined £2.8m over complaints handling

Royal Bank of Scotland has been fined £2.8 million for “multiple failings” in the way it handled customers’ complaints, the City watchdog said yesterday.

The Financial Services Authority said the part-nationalised bank responded inadequately to more than half of all the complaints it reviewed. It said there was a “high risk” that customers of both RBS and its NatWest brand may not have been treated fairly due to a catalogue of failings in the bank’s approach to handling routine complaints.

These failings included delays in responding to customers and poor quality investigations into complaints, with complaints handlers failing to obtain and take into account all relevant information when making a decision. Overall, the FSA said 53 per cent of the cases it reviewed showed deficient complaint handling, while in 62 per cent of cases the bank failed to follow FSA rules on giving people information on the Financial Ombudsman Service and in 31 per cent of cases it did not demonstrate fair outcomes for consumers.