The number of complaints made were also down on last year’s 74,600 over the same period, which represents Q1 of the financial year.
The FOS said it received lower levels of complaints about “everyday financial products” such as motor insurance and current accounts.
It attributed the overall fall in claims to a halving of complaints about “perceived irresponsible and unaffordable lending”. For these issues, the FOS received 10,000 new cases compared to 21,600 last year.
Further, the most complained-about issue, motor finance commission, fell from 36,000 cases last year to 21,500 cases this year.
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Mortgage complaints
The FOS received 1,066 complaints about first charge mortgages in Q1, and 25% of these complaints were upheld.
Some 102 claims were lodged regarding second charge mortgages, with a 36% uphold rate, while 38 complaints were made about Help to Buy mortgages, of which 62% were upheld.
Some 26% of the 53 claims made about lifetime mortgages were upheld, while 23% of the 157 complaints about buy-to-let (BTL) mortgages were upheld.
James Dipple-Johnstone, interim chief ombudsman at the FOS, said: “Following a year of extraordinary demand, we recently announced reforms to modernise the UK’s redress system, making it more agile and responsive and a much better fit for today’s economy.
“We have acted on feedback from our Call for Input and reviewed a range of our processes – and have already made changes. We’ll continue to listen to our industry partners so that, working together, we can have a system that’s fit for the future.”
