Charter UK has released research showing that half of the UK’s largest financial services firms have yet to nominate an executive responsible for complaints. The FSA’s incoming regulation requires regulated firms to nominate an executive to this role by 1 September 2011.

Of the 54 large financial services companies in the UK interviewed by Charter UK, just 27 had appointed a nominated executive with responsibility for complaints. Seventeen had not yet made a nomination, while a further 10 didn’t know if they had or not. Fifty one per cent of insurance companies had done so, compared to 41 per cent of banks and 50 per cent of credit card companies.

Paul Clark, Charter UK’s chief executive, comments: “This is a concern for the industry. There are just over two weeks to go before firms must show that they have nominated an executive with overall responsibility for complaints. Those companies that have yet to identify the individual within their team, or that are unsure if a nomination has been made, need to get moving as soon as possible."

“Our research showed that compliance and customer services are the business units from which the individual is most likely to be selected. Whatever the background of the individual, the key thing is to get to grips with the pace of regulatory change in the complaints landscape post-PPI, and to have a real grasp of the people, cultural, processes and systems challenges that prevent organisations from dealing with complaints effectively. What’s really worrying is that the companies we’ve spoken to thus far are top 50 UK financial services providers - it’s hard to escape the impression that the figures will look much worse among the smaller players!” he adds.

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