Banking complaints on the rise
Complaints to the Banking Ombudsman grew last year at twice the rate of those received the year before, whether in the form of official reports or over the phone. This illustrates the dimensions of the problem the banking sector has been facing during this period of financial crisis, while the number of loans issued declined. The relevant data released yesterday showed that complaints grew by 22.3 percent last year against a 10.7 percent annual rise registered in 2007. Most complaints (41.46 percent) concerned loans, followed by the means of payment (34.67 percent), deposits (14.35 percent) and investment services (7.88 percent). The number of written complaints came to 1,962 last year, while those submitted by telephone and by visits to the ombudsman reached 10,949. There was a 25 percent rise in the cases investigated, which reached 1,438, with just over two-thirds of these (67.19 percent) resolved to the benefit of the complainants.
