FSA slaps £2.8 million fine on RBS, NatWest
11 Jan 2011
The UK's Financial Services Authority (FSA) has fined Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and National Westminster Bank (NatWest) £2.8 million for failings in the way they handled customers' complaints.
RBS and NatWest are both part of the RBS Group and their UK retail bank branch networks operate under the umbrella of RBS UK Retail with standardised complaint handling arrangements.
''We recognise the importance of complaint handling for our customers and are focused on addressing the root causes of complaints,'' said Brian Hartzer, RBS and NatWest's head of UK Retail.
The fine would have been £4 million if the banks had not agreed to settle at an early stage in the investigation, FSA said in a statement.
The FSA's investigation found that there was an ''unacceptably high risk that customers may not have been treated fairly due to a number of failings within the banks' approach to routine complaint handling''.
The failings included delays in responding to customers and ''poor quality'' investigations into complaints, with complaint handlers failing to obtain and consider all the appropriate information when making their decision, the FSA said.
