Adviser complaint uphold rate markedly below average

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The proportion of complaints against advisory groups found in favour of the consumer is significantly below the average for the sector, the Financial Ombudsman Service's (FOS's) latest data shows.

Complainants against the three advisory groups to make the FOS's list for the second half of last year - Openwork, Personal Touch and Sesame - were only successful 16%, 13% and 24% of the time respectively. This compares to an average of 52% across all businesses in the FOS's list, though this figure is skewed by the proportion of successful complaints made against some banks, largely for payment protection insurance (PPI) claims. The FOS's figures cover only those financial businesses against which the Ombudsman received at least 30 new cases and resolved at least 30 cases in the six...

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