July to December 2018

Our H2 2018 results show that we are continuing our progress in reducing the total number of complaints across Barclays UK:

• Year-on-year, BUK complaints have reduced by one per cent
• Compared to the first half of 2018, BUK complaints have fallen by three per cent

Sian McIntyre, Barclays UK Head of Customer Experience, said: “We are committed to ensuring our customers have a positive relationship with us, and so work tirelessly to identify and resolve the issues that cause them to complain. We are pleased that complaints are continuing to fall, and remain focussed on delivering an excellent experience for all of our customers.”

We meet a financial need for nearly one in two adults in the UK, so it makes sense to look at the numbers in the context of our size. For example, in the Investments category, we received 48 per cent fewer complaints per 1,000 accounts than in H2 2017.

We remain absolutely committed to delivering excellent customer experiences, and exceeding what our customers expect from their bank. In recent months, we have taken steps to:

Help customers stay in control of their spending

Barclays recently launched a new feature for customers within its mobile banking app giving them the ability to ‘turn off’ spending with certain types of retailers.

The first UK high street bank to offer such a feature, Barclays developed the new tool with customers in vulnerable circumstances in mind. However, the feature will help all customers take greater control over where their money can be spent, as well as making them less vulnerable to fraud and scams.

Protect our customers against fraud and scams

To help combat phone call-based scams, Barclays recently unveiled a new feature for its online and mobile banking customers. A first for UK banking, this helpful feature allows customers to use their app to verify when a phone call from Barclays is genuine.

When a customer receives a call from Barclays and are concerned about the caller identity, they will be offered the chance to receive an alert in their app or online banking confirming the name of the employee who is calling them. The customer can then choose to accept the call, knowing that they are not giving out any sensitive information to the wrong person.

Help UK businesses to grow and create new jobs

Barclays is making it easier for UK businesses to regulate their cash flow through a new partnership with UK fintech MarketInvoice. In an industry first, we have committed to a significant minority stake in the firm, thus investing in a platform designed to provide outstanding client experiences and help our SME clients go forward by giving them seamless access to innovative forms of finance.

Barclays also launched #FarmtheFuture, a nationwide campaign encouraging farmers to plan for their future and tell young people about the benefits of a career in agriculture, as new data reveals that Britain’s farming population is ageing rapidly. The bank teamed up with TV presenter and former JLS boyband star JB Gill, who has swapped pop stardom for a rural life of turkey and pig farming, to show the younger generation that farming could be their perfect career.

Ensure all of our customers can access every-day banking services

In a UK banking first, Barclays recently announced a service where deaf or hard of hearing customers will be able to have their telephone conversations with the bank interpreted by a lipspeaker: a hearing person who can provide communication support by being easily lip read. With over 11 million people in the UK experiencing hearing loss, these developments will make sure all customers are able to access telephone banking services more easily.

The Data Explained

The complaints tables below provide a breakdown of all complaints made to Barclays between July and December 2018.

The complaints data is segmented across the six FCA product categories. The FCA also require firms to quote the complaint volumes in the context of the number of accounts, so we have included the number of complaints we received per 1,000 accounts for each of the six categories in the first column of each table (labelled ‘Provision’). Barclays Bank UK PLC has almost 37 million accounts and Barclays Bank PLC has over 377 thousand accounts within the Banking category. This includes all current and savings accounts, as well as credit cards and loans.

In the last column of each table we have also highlighted the main cause of the complaints, as defined by the FCA, for each category. The majority of the complaints we received were classed as ‘general administration and customer service’, which includes areas such as delays and bank errors.