The most complained about banks in South Africa in 2018
The ombudsman for banking services has published its annual report for 2017, showing how many complaints were put through to the ombud’s office from the country’s biggest retail banks.
According to the report, the number of cases opened in 2017 was up significantly from 2016, with 7,056 cases opened compared to 5,219 in the previous year.
Considering the size of the market, it’s unsurprising that the bulk of all complaints were received from the ‘big five’ retail banks.
Standard Bank, which currently has the largest number of retail clients in the country, also had the most complaints, with 1,669 submitted tot he ombud’s offices.
This was followed by FNB, Nedbank, Capitec and Absa.
African Bank was the only other notable bank to have complaints passed on to the ombudsman, with 156 complaints given, while Bidvest and Investec were the only other banks to have double-digit numbers.
Of the cases that were opened, 6,394 were closed in 2017.
Most complained about services
Internet banking was the biggest complaint of the year, with 1,377 cases relating to that sector. This was followed by ATM issues, credit card problems and various finance categories.
“In 2017 we received more internet banking complaints than in 2016,” the OBS said. “These complaints show the need for increased security measures as they varied between cellphone banking and fraud-related cases.”
Of all the complaints received most of the cases were settled in favour of the banks, with only one category having the majority of case (52%) ruled in favour of clients – debit orders.
In total, 27% of cases were closed in favour of clients, with the balance being in favour of the banks. While the number is low, it is still worse than in 2016, when 24% of cases were in clients’ favour.
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