Banking Sector Gets Record Number of Complaints
The state's independent Financial Supervision Authority (FSA) received more complaints about banks in 2011 than in any other year of its history, the institution has announced.
In sheer numbers, Swedbank generated the most complaints, 28, though the authority notes that relative to the size of its market share, it fared better than Nordea and Sampo (Danske Bank's Estonian branch), which each had 14 complaints against them. SEB also racked up 14 complaints, about the same rate as Swedbank given that its market share is also half the size.
Whereas in 2010, complaints were split evenly between banks and insurance companies, last year the banking sector accounted for two thirds of the total, the FSA said in a release.
Most complaints were related to the way banks handled settlements and loans. For example, customers were dissatisfied with the way banks informed them about price changes, while sureties complained about how the banks would notify them when a client got into trouble.
Despite the swelling number of grievances in the banking sector, the overall number of complaints received by the FSA in fact dropped to 148 last year, down from 181 in 2010, thanks to better results in the insurance sector.
Steve Roman