ABI: Complaints data must be useful to consumers

Thursday, 3 September 2009 12:00 AM

Commenting on publication of aggregate financial services complaints data by the FSA, Maggie Craig, the ABI's Director of Consumer Strategy, said:

"The ABI's member companies understand that consumers need meaningful information to help them make effective financial choices. How complaints are handled is part of this.

"But we need to show this in context, and in a way that gives meaningful information to consumers. It's important that any published data is clear, fair and not misleading. The FSA's aggregate data does not reflect the fact that there are 160 million general insurance and 82 million life insurance policies in force - overall, that's just 1 complaint for every 1,200 policies during the second half of 2008. However, the insurance industry acknowledges that more work needs to be done to improve performance, and the ABI is leading the way on initiatives to achieve this.

"The current format to be used by the FOS, and later the FSA, for publishing company-specific data, will not help consumers because it doesn't allow them to compare the performance of different companies for specific products, such as motor or home insurance, on a like for like basis. Without this level of detail, the published data will be of no real help to consumers and, without the right context, we remain very concerned that it might even be misleading."

- ENDS -

Notes for Editors

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