The UK’s Financial Services Authority is seeking to raise complaints handling standards within the financial industry.

On Thursday, the FSA issued a consultation paper proposing a series of changes to the complaint handling rules. It also proposed raising the limit on awards by its ombudservice from 100, 000 to 150,000; and, it published firm-specific complaints data.

The regulator said that publishing data on individual firms brings complaints to the attention of firms and consumers alike, and gives firms a benchmark and an incentive to improve how they treat their customers and handle complaints.

“The firm specific complaints data published today is also a step in the right direction towards improving transparency for customers,” said Sheila Nicoll, the FSA’s director of conduct policy.

“We will continue to work closely with firms to help push up standards in this area and to deliver improvements in the way firms treat their customers and we have already referred two firms to enforcement as a result of poor complaints practices,” she added.

IE