Financial Ombudsman Service continues to see a fall in cases

Quarterly data published today shows that we received 46,300 complaints from July to September 2025. This is substantially lower than the 73,700 cases we reported we received in the same period in 2024/25, and the 68,000 complaints we received in the first three months of this financial year (April to June).

We became the first UK ombudsman to introduce charges for professional representatives to refer cases to our service to ensure complaints are better evidenced, and their merits are more carefully considered. Prior to this, we saw professional representatives withdraw or abandon a large number of cases, and for some case types low uphold rates.

The latest data set shows that professional representatives accounted for 4,300 cases in the second quarter of this financial year, and a higher proportion of complaints are now coming directly from consumers. In the same period in 2024/25, professional representatives lodged around 37,100 cases.

The rise in mass claims coming to us in recent years is one of the reasons we have been working with the Treasury and the FCA to modernise the dispute resolution system – ensuring consumers can continue to access a quick and high-quality alternative to the courts.

The changes, which complement government proposals, will help firms identify and resolve issues before complaints escalate and aim to give greater predictability, bringing confidence to financial services.

James Dipple-Johnstone, Interim Chief Ombudsman at the Financial Ombudsman Service, said:

“We are undertaking an ambitious series of improvements to foster confidence in financial services now and in the future.
“Following a period of extraordinary demand, our case volumes are now starting to decrease as the measures we have implemented ensure the complaints which come to us are better-evidenced and ready to be investigated.
“The changes we have already introduced – and those we plan to make in the future – will allow us to focus on getting back to our core purpose for customers as a quick, informal and impartial alternative to the courts for resolving disputes.”

Motor finance commission and perceived irresponsible and unaffordable lending were the two areas where complaints from professional representatives previously made up a significant proportion of cases.

In the second quarter of this financial year, we received 4,500 complaints about irresponsible and unaffordable lending compared to 24,900 cases in July to September 2024.

We have also seen a fall in motor finance commission cases, receiving around 2,200 complaints compared to 9,500 in the same period in 2024/25. The decrease is largely due to the FCA’s complaints handling pause as well as its plans for a redress scheme. 

Current accounts are now back to being the most complained about product. Consumers lodged 7,900 complaints, with fraud and scams and administration/customer service being the most complained about issues. In the same period in 2024/25 consumers submitted 9,200 complaints, as previously reported.

Across all financial products, the uphold rate has been broadly consistent with around a third of complaints upheld by us. 
A breakdown of the figures shows which products were the most complained about between July and September 2025. As a comparison, the table below also provides previously published data for the first quarter of 2025/26 and the same period in the last financial year.

We have also published our half yearly complaints data on individual firms. The data covers complaints received by the service about individual firms from 1 January to 30 June 2025.

Notes to editors

About the data

The recent quarterly products data in this release refers to 1 July to 30 September 2025. You can download the full Q2 2025/25 data set.

The half-yearly individual companies’ data covers a different period, from 1 January to 30 June 2025. You can access the H1 2025 data. 

All data in the press release has been rounded to the nearest 100.

‘Found in favour of the consumer’ or ‘upheld’ means that the case was closed as a change in outcome in favour of the complainant.

About the Financial Ombudsman Service

The Financial Ombudsman Service was set up by Parliament to resolve individual complaints between financial businesses and their customers on a fair and reasonable basis, as a free alternative to the courts. It can look into problems involving most types of money matters. It is committed to sharing insight and experience to encourage fairness and confidence in financial services.