Barclays Publishes Complaints Data for Q3 2014

TOTAL COMPLAINTS FOR THE QUARTER DOWN BY OVER 11,400 INCLUDING PPI

Barclays has today published total reportable complaints figures for the third quarter of 2014, which show:

• Total year on year complaints including PPI are down by 11,407 (Q3 2014 150,953, Q3 2013 162,360). Within this -
• PPI (General Insurance complaints) are down 23,596 (Q3 2014 91,302, Q3 2013 114,898)
• Mortgage complaints are up 421 (Q3 2014 2,721, Q3 2013 2,300), due to growth in the number of applications Barclays' handles each day.
• Banking complaints up 12,339 (Q3 2014 54,813 Q3 2013 42,474), driven largely by Claims Management Companies (CMCs) claims, not the day to day experience of customers.

Barclays is the only bank to currently publish its results quarterly, twice as often as required by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). We also provide context and analysis on the figures, sharing the key causes of complaints along with an action plan for addressing them.

Matt Hammerstein, Head of Client and Customer Experience at Barclays:
"Total complaints to the bank continue to decrease year on year; however we've seen a rise in banking and mortgage complaints this quarter, which is wholly unacceptable.

"We are relentlessly committed to getting it right for our customers. Putting the customer at the heart of what we do, providing them with seamless and simple products and services is of paramount importance to us. We want to eliminate any cause for our customers to complain and are working tirelessly to make this a reality."

Detailed information on a key cause of complaints is summarised below:

Improving the mortgage journey - what we're doing

We want every customer to have a positive experience of banking with Barclays, especially when making what is often the biggest purchase of their lives. By empowering staff to handle customer issues efficiently, investing in technology to make the digital experience as helpful as possible and by simplifying fees, we're taking a number of steps to make home finance work better for all our customers. Highlighted below are some of the key initiatives:

1. Quicker decisions, greater access: The industry is facing a huge shake-up this year, and we're working hard to reduce the negative impact on our customers. To keep things simple for those who don't need advised services, we're streamlining and automating rate switching services, taking pressure off our frontline advisors, and freeing them up to help customers with more complex requirements.

2. Improving transparency: In this digital age, many of our customers would rather not have to call up to find out how their mortgage application is progressing. So we've developed an online tracking and text alert service, called Track It, to help customers know where they stand in the process, whether at home or on the move.

3. Reducing and simplifying fees: Confusing fees are a problem for our customers, and when they're hard to explain, they can cause frustration, so we're cutting and consolidating fees to help make mortgage charges clear, fair and transparent for everyone that chooses to finance their home with us.

Barclays was recently voted by consumers and intermediaries Best Bank for Mortgages at the Your Mortgage Awards which is encouraging recognition of the impact these initiatives are having for our customers.

ENDS

Notes to Editors: A full breakdown of FCA reportable complaints is available on our website: www.barclays.com/complaints

Barclays Complaint Volumes Publication
Barclays as a Group is required to publish FCA reportable complaints for all of its legal entities that received more than 500 complaints in the six month period, and which were not resolved by close of business on the next business day with 'customer acceptance' of the proposed resolution. Barclays publishable legal entities to include: Barclays Bank PLC; Firstplus Financial Group PLC; Clydesdale Financial Services Limited and Woolwich Plan Managers Limited.

Barclays Bank PLC accounts for 98 per cent of all UK FCA reportable complaints and includes the following: UK Retail and Business Banking; Barclaycard; Barclays Wealth; Barclays Corporate; The Woolwich; Solution Personal Finance Ltd; Standard Life Cash Savings & Mortgages; Standard Life Cash Savings; and Standard Life Mortgages, Barclays Direct (formally ING Direct UK).
Barclays provides a full breakdown of all FCA reportable complaints data for all of its publishable legal entities on its website at www.barclays.com/complaints .

Complaint definition
An FCA reportable complaint is defined as being any expression of dissatisfaction which has not been resolved by close of business on the business day following its receipt.

About Barclays

Barclays is an international financial services provider engaged in personal banking, credit cards, corporate and investment banking and wealth management with an extensive presence in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia. Barclays' purpose is to help people achieve their ambitions – in the right way.

With over 300 years of history and expertise in banking, Barclays operates in over 50 countries and employs approximately 135,000 people. Barclays moves, lends, invests and protects money for customers and clients worldwide.

For further information about Barclays, please visit our website www.barclays.com.