Complaints made clear

Customer Satisfaction

Yorkshire Bank aims to provide the best possible quality of service to all of our customers.

Although the majority of our customers are happy with the service they receive, every year a very small percentage contact us with complaints.

We value our customers extremely highly and take all customer complaints seriously. When a complaint is received we always aim to investigate it quickly, in order to identify the root cause, prevent any reoccurrence and, wherever possible, resolve the complaint to the customer’s satisfaction. We always apologise for mistakes or instances when customer service did not meet our high standards.

As well as resolving the complaint for our customers, we take appropriate internal action, whether that involves improving our processes or providing specific feedback to relevant business areas.

Putting things right when they go wrong

Although the majority of our customers are happy with the service they receive, it is important that we get the opportunity to say sorry and put things right when our customer service standards have not been met.

Customers who are dissatisfied with the service that they have received from Yorkshire Bank may wish to complain and can do so using the Complaints Procedure section of this website.

Working with the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS)

Of all our customers a very small percentage have contacted us to complain. Very occasionally customers are not satisfied with the outcome of our investigation and disagree with our findings. In these cases we advise customers of their right to take their complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service to be independently investigated.

We co-operate fully with the FOS and work closely with them to achieve a satisfactory outcome for the customer. We are committed to improving our customer service and we value the feedback received from the FOS.

Publication of complaints data

In September 2009 the FOS published a breakdown of the number of complaints that they received from customers of individual banks in the preceding six months. They also published details of how many complaints were overturned by them (ie FOS changed the Bank’s decision). These figures will continue to be published by FOS on a six-monthly basis.

The FOS defines an ‘overturn’ to be where:

• The FOS has disagreed with a bank’s decision 
• The FOS has agreed with a bank’s decision but has recommended additional compensation or apology is given to the customer
• A bank has taken longer than eight weeks to resolve the complaint, irrespective of the outcome

For more information you can visit Financial Ombudsman Service Website (opens in a new window)

Complaints and the Financial Services Authority (FSA)

As regulator for the finance industry, the FSA has strict guidelines on the reporting of complaints. Every six months all financial institutions must submit to the FSA details of complaints received and how they are handled. These figures are published on the FSA’s website and give an industry-wide picture, they are not currently firm specific.

• View our recent reporting to the FSA on our complaint volumes

For more information you can visit Financial Services Authority Website (opens in a new window)