P2P lending complaints continue to decline
Complaints against peer-to-peer lenders and crowdfunding firms have continued to fall, according to data released by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
In the second half of 2021, P2P and crowdfunding products received 601 complaints, down 227 per cent from 1,968 in the first half of 2021 and 2,111 in the second half of 2020.
Zopa Bank had a total of 960 complaints, although only 135 of those related to investments, with the rest relating to banking and credit cards. It upheld half of the investment complaints.
Retail Money Market, which traded under the RateSetter brand, received 21 complaints related to investments, but a total of 1025 complaints in consumer credit. After being acquired by Metro Bank, RateSetter closed its P2P lending side of the business in April 2021, so these complaints would have come in after the closure.
Funding Circle, which also recently exited the P2P lending market, had 49 complaints in the last six months of 2021, and was able to close 93 per cent of complaints after three days, but within eight weeks. It upheld 4.7 per cent of those complaints. However, in consumer credit, the group received 636 complaints and upheld 193 of those, according to the data published by the FCA.
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Overall, financial services firms received 1.84 million complaints in the second half of 2021, down 10 per cent compared with the previous six-month period, and the lowest level recorded since the second half of 2016.
Complaints related to investments fell 29 per cent, but the largest decline was in insurance and pure protection product group.
The percentage of complaints upheld increased slightly, the data showed, from 59.4 per cent to 59.5 per cent. Meanwhile, the total redress paid fell 52 per cent from £559m in the first half of 2021 to £291.5m.
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