Client Success Story

Bank Charges Complaint Handling

The Challenge

As a result of increased public awareness and media attention regarding bank charges our client, a top six high street bank, experienced unprecedented claim volumes which resulted in a significant backlog. They were at risk of breaching the FSA’s 8-week regulatory guideline and possibly facing enforcement.

The Solution

Huntswood supplied managed teams totalling 40 complaint handlers, which operated from two client sites. Subsequent ad-hoc increases to project headcount have been satisfied within short deployment timescales.

This work stream entailed:

The Result

Within four weeks Huntswood’s productivity had far exceeded the client’s expectations, with each resource typically completing over 16 cases per day. This represented an improvement of 100% on the client’s internal levels of productivity.

Huntswood’s View

The High Court announcement of 24th April 2008, confirming that the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations (UTCCRs) could be applied to unauthorised overdraft charges, should have focused the minds of all affected banks and building societies.

While no-one knows with any certainty who the decision will favour, the growing backlog will still need to be addressed. With a conservative estimate of 750,000 complaints currently on hold, firms should now be well advanced with planning their project requirements.

Based on our extensive experience in this area, Huntswood believes that many firms will be using the court case as a ‘breather’ instead of taking immediate action, which is a mistake. There are highly pragmatic steps that can be taken in readiness for Decision Day, with a focus on putting the customer at the heart of the process. Those banks that alienate their customers during Bank Charges 2 (BC2) risk compromising an important revenue stream for many years to come.

Huntswood is well placed to provide points of view in preparation for BC2, including building policy and creating best-practice processes to ensure efficiency is achieved and the customer experience is a positive one. Furthermore, depending on the outcome of the test case Huntswood is well placed to supply specialist resources to assist with the processing of cases and through our managed service we can drive productivity to achieve a cost effective solution for our clients.