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- Nedbank saw the biggest increase in formal complaints at the Ombud for Banking Services.
- But complaints against Standard Bank fell by almost a third over the past year.
- Only 27% of formal cases were found in favour of clients, the Ombud said.
- For more financial news, go to the News24 Business front page.
South African consumers are increasingly bypassing their banks and taking their fights to the Ombud for Banking Services South Africa (OBS), even before exhausting all the internal complaint channels their banks offer. The OBS saw a 13% jump in these "premature" cases in the past year, even though queries that eventually became formal complaints decreased by 5%.
The Ombud gives banks 20 days to resolve the issue directly with the complainant. It's only when banks don't address the complaint to their customers' satisfaction or don't respond to the OBS within 20 days that these are converted to formal cases.
Of the 12 032 premature cases the Ombud receives, only 5 700 became formal cases.
Capitec led the pack with over 1 800 formal cases, overtaking Standard Bank, which wore the dreaded crown in 2021. FNB had the most formal cases investigated by the OBS in 2020.
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However, OBS's operations manager, Edrich Buytendorp, was quick to point out that the number of formal complaints opened per bank doesn't mean that the bank is the most-complained-about in the country.
"The number of files open per bank is not necessarily indicative of the bank's complaint handling performance, or its performance in general for that matter. Banks vary considerably in size, client profiles and product mix. These factors all impact the number of complaints made against the bank to the OBS," he said.
Buytendorp said that there had been a consistent trend in the increasing complaints against Capitec in the past three years, but this could be attributed to the bank's rapid growth and the fact that it has the largest customer base. Capitec has surpassed the 20 million customer mark. But growth has brought new challenges like increasing technical glitches and connectivity issues.
It was Nedbank that saw the biggest percentage increase in formal complaints opened against it, from 1 273 cases in 2021 to 1 508 in 2022 – an 18% increase. Formal complaints against Capitec increased by 11%. Standard Bank had the largest decrease in formal complaints in 2022. The OBS opened 1 385 cases against the bank compared to 2 070 in 2021, a reduction of 31%.
Of the cases the OBS closed in 2022, 27% were resolved in favour of banks' clients. The OBS believes that the fact that almost three-quarters of complaints are resolved in favour of banks indicates that their internal dispute resolution departments treat complainants with fairness.
