Financial Ombudsman Service data reveals decline in P2P lending complaints

Peer-to-peer lenders received fewer complaints in the first quarter of 2020, Financial Ombudsman figures show.

This followed a general trend of enquires and cases considered by the Ombudsman declining across all financial products during the first three months of the year.

P2P lending platforms received 85 per cent fewer enquiries than the fourth quarter of 2019 and saw a 39 per cent drop in new complaint cases to 40.

However, there was a slight increase in cases going to the Ombudsman for a ruling, rising from 12 to 13.

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The Ombudsman received 110,695 new enquiries and 57,509 new complaints between April and June 2020 across all regulated products.

This was down 19 per cent and 18 per cent respectively on a quarterly basis.

On average it upheld 32 per cent of the complaints but no figure is provided for P2P lending as the cases are still awaiting a ruling.

Payment protection insurance continues to be the most complained about product but the Ombudsman also said it has received more than 3,500 complaints related to Covid-19 – almost a quarter of these are from consumers who had their travel plans disrupted and have had their insurance claims declined.

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