The Treasury Committee has published new data that shows a rise of 69% in complaints to the FOS about debanking since 2020/21. In the last year, there were nearly 4,000 complaints. There has also been an increase in the proportion of complaints the FOS has upheld - 36% last year, up from 27% or below in previous years.
The FOS has also seen a trebling of complaints about “restricted account closures”, that is, where the case relates to financial crime concerns or PEPs.
The Committee had written to the FOS asking for evidence not only on SME banking complaints (including querying why relatively few SMEs seem to complain to the FOS). The FOS response noted that in the past year, the FOS resolved 467 account closure complaints from eligible SMEs.