The number of consumer complaints to financial services firms about investments fell more than any other product group last year, according to the latest FCA data.

Complaints about investments dropped 15.7% from 62,825 in the first half of 2024 to 52,971 in the second half of the year.

Overall the number of consumer complaints fell by 4.3% in 2024, according to the data.

Some experts have suggested that the Consumer Duty, and its new requirements to prioritise consumer interests at every stage of the customer journey, may have been a factor in the drop.

Despite the progress, consumer complaints remain high.

In the second half of 2024 financial services firms received 1.78m complaints, down from 1.86m in the first half of the year.

Since 2021 complaints have stayed relatively constant between 1.7m and 2.0m, the FCA reported.

The percentage of complaints that were upheld by firms remained around 57% over the year.

In the second half of 2024 the total amount of redress was £236m, a 3% decrease on the first half figure of £243m.

Banking and credit cards attracted the most complaints during the year with a total of 1.69m complaints. That was followed by insurance and protection, which attracted 1.48m complaints over the 12 months.

Last year all product groups saw a decrease in their complaint numbers from the first half of the year to the second half:

• Banking and credit cards decreased 1.3% from 850,983 to 839,526.
• Decumulation & pensions decreased 4.2% from 93,045 to 89,172.
• Home finance decreased 10.0% from 93,234 to 83,936.
• Insurance & pure protection decreased 6.0% from 764,272 to 718,496.

The two products with the largest percentage increase in the number of complaints, driven mostly by the low number of complaints about the products, were:

• Investment packaged multi products from 73 in 2024 H1 to 115 in 2024 H2 (57.5% increase).
• Protection packaged multi products from 554 in 2024 H1 to 788 in 2024 H2 (42.2% increase).

• The FCA publishes its complaints data every six months, around April and October.