Striving to meet the Financial Services Authority (FSA) regulatory and compliance requirements, a complaints solution for financial services organizations was announced by SoundBite Communications (News - Alert). The FSA has devised a set of obligations and timelines for financial services companies in reaction to a large number of complaints surrounding potential mis-selling of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI).

As a way to protect its consumers who would otherwise fall behind on payments as a result of sickness, injury or unemployment, PPI are insurance products offered and sold by financial services companies in connection with loans, credit cards and mortgages. 

Throughout a number of years, the FSA has determined that financial services companies had routinely mis-sold PPI products and declared that consumers who have been mis-sold these products need to be compensated. For this compensation process, the FSA has also established timelines.

A September 2012 FSA report showed that the number of complaints involving general insurance and pure protection increased by 99 percent and of that product group, payment protection insurance accounted for the vast majority of claims. 

A large, outbound customer communications solution has been created due to the number of potential claims for PPI compensations. The incoming complaints need to be proactively managed by the financial services companies. Moreover, consumers who have not registered a complaint, but may have one, also have to be notified.

For handling the complaints, companies are expected to keep within the FSA timelines as well as manage the customer contact process. The challenges raised by this are varied and include dialing customers manually, which is extremely inefficient, handling claims where the information is incomplete, as well as increasing contact center staff to handle larger call volumes and controlling the associated expense.

“Complaints handling is a key aspect of regulatory monitoring. Ineffective complaint handling can fuel negative public perception of the financial companies and invoke regulatory action,” stated Jay Reilly, managing director of SoundBite Communications, Ltd. 

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