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Bank notes.
National Financial Ombud Scheme South Africa (NFO) says the highest number of complaints they received from consumers in the year 2024 were about fraud identification, car insurance, inflated charges for homes and bank accounts.
The scheme released its latest figures, revealing that the country’s biggest banks were the subject of the majority of complaints received between March and December last year.
The NFO recovered more than R328 million for consumers across all financial sectors.
The ombud’s CEO Reana Steyn says they dealt with over 30,000 cases.
“The bank with the highest number of complaints last year was Capitec. But we always caution to say that they are also by far the bank with the most clients. So, it does not mean necessarily that they fared worse because they only opened not even 100 cases; more than the next bank. The next one was FNB. And then you’re followed by Standard Bank and Nedbank. I think it follows also the number of clients that these banks have. There really is a need for an office such as ours. Consumers do need the help and they need the free assistance because it does seem that (in the) financial services industry, there are issues,” says Steyn.
