By Kang Seung-woo
Staff reporter
Local financial companies have primped and primed to lure customers with a variety of products and services, but these offerings have still a long way to go to cope with rising complaints.
What is remarkable is that major players, such as Kookmin Bank, SC First Bank and MetLife, are at the bottom in dealing with customer complaints.
This was revealed in the Financial Supervisory Service's (FSS) evaluation of complaint management in 2009 of 73 financial companies ― banks, insurers, securities firms and card issuers ― released Wednesday.
According to the assessment, 52 companies suffered a drop in grade last year from 2008, with just three seeing theirs rise. Eighteen maintained the same ratings.
A total of 26 companies were ranked fifth ― the lowest grade. This signifies the worst complaint management.
``As the number of complaints from customers is growing, the companies suffer demotions,'' an FSS official said.
The financial regulator has annually ranked each firm after considering factors such as the number of complaints, the companies' response, total assets and number of clients, since it introduced the evaluating system in 2002.
The official said that complaints are on a steady rise due to economic growth.
The financial companies were divided into five categories - banking, credit cards, life insurance, fire and marine insurance and securities.
In the bank sector, Kyongnam, Kookmin, Woori, HSBC, SC First and National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives (NFFC) received the lowest ranking; while Kumho, Green Cross, MetLife, Mirae Asset, Allianz, Heungkuk, ING and PCA were rated fifth in the life insurance area.
Green, ACE American, AHA (Chartis) and Heungkuk also placed bottom in the fire and marine insurance category.
Eight securities companies ― Dongbu, Tong Yang, Meritz, Kiwoom, Prudential, Hana Daetoo, Hi and Korea ― were in the cellar; but the credit card field did not crank out any fifth-grade company thanks to its small size (five companies).
The set back in the evaluation was mainly due to a sharp increase in complaints caused by the economic downturn. The number of complaints totaled 59,952, up 41.1 percent from 2008.
Banks encountered complaints linked to loans and fund sales, while credit card firms faced issues on unpaid fees.
Clients were not satisfied with life insurance in its signing up strategies, and fire and marine insurance companies' payment and calculation were pointed out as problems.
Like banks, securities companies met with investment loss-related demands.
As a result, the FSS plans to more closely monitor complaints in order to improve the financial industry and believes that this will eventually pay dividends.
``We will advise those rated fourth or fifth to voluntarily set up a plan to reduce complaints and as for the lowest rankers, we will counsel their board of directors and do on-site inspections,'' it said.
``It will deal a hard blow to their brand value, which could be advantageous for their competitors.''
Meanwhile, along with the annual rating, the FSS has made efforts to deal with the complaints.
``We have improved the department in charge of consumer protection and updated our computer system to better respond to customer complaints,'' it said.