Banking Complaints
Each bank is obliged to have its own internal complaints system and the Business
Banking Code sets out strict timescales within which the bank should respond.
The bank should send you a written acknowledgement within five working days of
receiving your complaint and should write to you again within four weeks, either
with its final response or to explain why it needs more time to respond. The bank
has a maximum of eight weeks to send you its final response and should tell you how
to take your complaint further if you are still not satisfied.
If at the end of eight weeks the bank has either not responded at all, or if you
are still not satisfied with the outcome, you can ask the Financial Ombudsman
Service, South Quay Plaza, 183 Marsh Wall, London E14 9SR, to take up the matter on
your behalf. You must do this within six months of the date of the final response
letter.
If you consider the bank to be in breach of the Banking Code, you can contact
the Banking Code Standards Board, 6 Frederick's Place, London, EC2R 8BT.
Not all complaints can be taken up either by the Financial Ombudsman Service or
the Banking Code Standards Board. The schemes do not cover banks' commercial
judgments about whether to lend or competitive issues such as the actual level of
charges made.
Note: Only businesses with a turnover of up to £1 million are covered under the
Business Banking Code and the Financial Ombudsman Service Scheme.
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