Complaints soar at financial firms

Foreign financial companies received the largest number of complaints by customers to date for the first quarter.

The complaints were largely concentrated on what customers thought were unfair, namely the illegal collection of loans and annual fees on credit card services.

According to the Financial Supervisory Service yesterday, customer complaints at financial companies amounted to 21,338, which is a 14.7 percent increase compared to the 18,599 registered during the same period last year.

Complaints among banks and nonbanking financial institutions rose 19.4 percent on-year while those at insurance firms went up 12.2 percent. Financial investment companies such as brokerages and asset management firms saw customer complaints fall 2.5 percent. In particular, complaints over the suspension of savings banks surged 678.1 percent on-year.

The financial authorities suspended three savings banks, including Jinheung, in the last two months of 2012, while suspending two additional savings banks in February.

Additionally, complaints about credit card companies’ reduced benefits as well as high annual fees went up nearly 12 percent.

With insurance companies, most customers were dissatisfied about the stricter requirements when signing up to subscribe for insurance service, while there were also numerous complaints about insurance companies’ late payments to customers.

By Lee Ho-jeong [ojlee82@joongang.co.kr]