Lloyds leads bank complaints list

Lloyds Banking Group received more than one in five of all the customer complaints received by the Financial Ombudsman Service during the six months to December.

The part-nationalised lender received 22,181 complaints out of the 97,237 received by the ombudsman during the second half of last year. The overall figure for complaints against financial-services firms rose by 15 per cent from 84,212 in the first half of 2010. Its state-backed peer Royal Bank of Scotland had the dubious honour of attracting the second-biggest haul with 8,644 complaints. Barclays, which sidestepped a state-bailout during the financial crisis, fared slightly better with 8,256 disputes referred to the ombudsman.

Complaints against HSBC more than doubled to 8,238, while Santander saw 6,759 complaints.