Complaints to Banking Ombudsman continue to fall

1.00pm

Complaints to the Banking Ombudsman continued to fall in during the first part of this year as full employment, rising property prices, and favourable economic conditions prevailed.

Banking Ombudsman Liz Brown said formal complaints received by her office in the first five months of this year were down 20 per cent compared to the same period last year.

Favourable economic conditions had undoubtedly contributed to the decrease in complaints," Ms Brown said in a newsletter.

"In the past a substantial number of complaints have come from bank customers who were having difficulty managing debt, and we are seeing fewer of this type of complaint."

Ms Brown said there had been a decline in most types of complaints for the past two years but overall, complaint numbers remained high because of "an influx of complaints about investment products in 2002 and 2003".

However as the performance of managed funds and other investment products with a shares component improved, "these complaints slowed to a trickle and the underlying trend became apparent."

Also contributing to the decrease in complaints were period of stability in the banking industry and improvements in banks own internal complaints processes.

"Those banks that have restructured and put more resource into their internal complaints processes are the those that have contributed most to the reduction in cases that require investigation by the banking ombudsman."

Ms Brown said her office, partly due the reduction in caseload, was now able to resolve most complaints far more quickly.

- NZPA