Financial Ombudsman Service sees lowest complaint levels in two years

New cases coming to us have returned to complaint volumes last seen in 2023/24 - with figures released today showing we received 47,300 complaints between October and December 2025.

This is a significantly lower caseload for us, compared to the same quarter last year (2024/25) when we received 68,400 cases.

It also means new cases coming to us have remained at a steady state for the past six months as in the second quarter of 2025/26 we received 46,300 new complaints.

Several factors have contributed to the lower volumes of cases coming to us. 

Since the introduction of the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) complaint handling pause and announced plans for a redress scheme for motor finance commission cases there has been a substantial decrease in those complaints coming to us.

Also, we are undergoing the most significant reform programme for a generation – including the introduction of charges for professional representatives where some, in the past, have brought high numbers of poorly evidenced complaints to us.

Professional representatives are now bringing better evidenced complaints, and we are seeing fewer withdrawn and abandoned cases. For the 2024/25 financial year, more than a third of complaints from professional representatives were withdrawn and/or abandoned and so far in this financial year (April 2025 to December 2025), this figure stands at 19%.

These representatives are also bringing fewer irresponsible and unaffordable lending cases – between October and December 2025 there were 4,800 new cases compared to 13,200 in the same period the previous year.

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

We are improving our service to ensure we can help underpin confidence in financial services now and in the future.

Following a period of extraordinary demand, our case volumes are returning to a steady state as measures we have implemented ensure the complaints that 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 high-quality dispute resolution system.

As fewer consumers use professional representatives, more people – including vulnerable consumers – are bringing complaints directly to us, allowing a growing number to retain the full value of any redress awarded. 

We are currently working with HM Treasury and the FCA to modernise the dispute resolution system – ensuring consumers can continue to access a quick, informal and high-quality dispute resolution service. We continue to improve our timeliness while maintaining quality in resolving cases.

The latest data set shows that we received just 400 motor finance commission complaints in the third financial period of 2025/26, compared to 14,400 at the same time last year.

This significant drop follows the FCA’s complaint handling pause and its announcement of plans for a redress scheme. Clarity from the Supreme Court has also enabled us to resolve more than 7,000 motor finance complaints in this quarter.

We are giving answers on those cases where it is clear there was no unfair relationship between the lender and its customer. As this cohort of cases has not been upheld it has affected the overall uphold rate which was 27% for the quarter – it is 31% across all products when motor finance commission cases are excluded.  

A breakdown of the figures shows which products were the most complained about between October and December 2025. As a comparison, the table below also provides previously published data for the second quarter of 2025/26 and the same period in the last financial year.  The data below is for new complaints brought to us during the relevant period.  

Notes to editors

About the data

The recent quarterly products data in this release refers to 1 October to 31 December 2025. You can view and download the full data set.

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

An ‘electronic money (e-money account)’ is defined as a digital pre-paid account that stores funds electronically and can be used to make payments. These are alternatives to traditional bank accounts. 

In general terms, a ‘withdrawn’ complaint means that, for any number of reasons, the customer has told the Financial Ombudsman that they no longer wish to pursue it, while an ‘abandoned’ case means that the customer has not replied to the Financial Ombudsman so the case has been closed. 

‘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.