Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays and Santander have published information about the complaints they received in the first half of this year, as banking groups published data ahead of the 31 August deadline.

New Financial Services Authority (FSA) rules mean banking groups have to publish data on their complaints if they receive more than 500 in a six month period.

The requirement is to publish the information in five broad categories and will be collected and posted on the FSA website by the end of September.

Publishing its complaints data for the first half of 2010 divided up by brand, Lloyds Banking Group said its Lloyds TSB Bank business had received 103,686; 12  per cent of closed complaints were upheld.

The bank said it had more than 32million customers and for every 1,000 accounts (including current and savings accounts, credit cards and loans) there were three complaints reported.

The figure of complaints closed was 348,700, inflated by the suspension of complaints during previous years about overdraft charges which have now been closed. These complaints were suspended while a test case went to the Supreme Court.

The bank received 740 complaints under the category investments, upholding 51 per cent of the 611 it closed.

For the Bank of Scotland, which includes the Halifax brand, the number of banking complaints was 68,280; just seven per cent of the complaints closed were upheld.

Across the Lloyds Banking Group, the total number of complaints for the first six months of the year was over 280,000.

For mortgages, offered in partnership with the Cheltenham & Gloucester brand, 2,777 complaints were received with 32 per cent of the closed complaints upheld.

Figures for Barclays showed 200,393 complaints were received under the banking category, with 32 per cent of closed complaints upheld.

The number of complaints relating to mortgages was 7,818; a total of 8,158 complaints were closed in the period January until the end of June. Out of this 8,158, the proportion of upheld complaints was 59 per cent.

Santander said it had dealt with seven out of 10 complaints within 48 hours, with over four out of ten upheld in favour of the customer. The group received 216,158 complaints about banking products, and upheld 41 per cent of the complaints it closed.

Under the investments category, of the 1,628 complaints the banking group closed, 73 per cent were upheld. The Santander group includes the brands Alliance and Leicester, Bradford & Bingley and Cahoot.

© Fair Investment Company Ltd