Published decisions
4,003
2026 decision volume in the public corpus
Year analysis
2026 complaint and ombudsman analysis
Detailed public analysis of the 2026 published Financial Ombudsman decision set, including complaint volume, outcome mix, product concentration, firm exposure, and recurring complaint themes.
Upheld rate
22.8%
913 upheld decisions
Page summary
4,003 published FOS decisions in 2026, including upheld-rate context, top firms, top products, recurring complaint themes, and representative cases.
Published decisions
4,003
2026 decision volume in the public corpus
Upheld rate
22.8%
913 upheld decisions
Latest published decision 21 Apr 2026
How to use this page
Read the metrics first, then the ranked view.
The top-line cards show scale and outcome context. The ranked view and representative decisions show where the slice is concentrated and what the published decision set actually looks like.
Published decisions
4,003
2026 decision volume in the public corpus
Upheld rate
22.8%
913 upheld decisions
Leading product
Banking and Payments
40.5% of annual decisions
Leading firm
Barclays Bank UK PLC
205 published decisions
What stood out in 2026
Analysis4,003 published ombudsman decisions landed in 2026. 22.8% of those decisions were upheld, while 77.2% were not upheld. That makes 2026 a meaningful benchmark year for understanding where complaint pressure and adjudication risk sat across the corpus.
Banking and Payments was the heaviest product area, accounting for 1,620 decisions. Barclays Bank UK PLC appeared most often at firm level. The most frequently tagged complaint theme was delay in claim handling.
- Banking and Payments: 1,620 decisions
- Barclays Bank UK PLC: 205 decisions
- Delay In Claim Handling: 1,272 tagged decisions
- 2026 versus 2025: down 87.4% year on year
Product mix and concentration
AnalysisThe year was led by Banking and Payments, Consumer Credit, Insurance, and others, which together represented the centre of complaint activity in the published decisions for 2026.
Banking and Payments alone contributed 40.5% of all decisions published in 2026, which makes it the clearest lens for understanding how complaint pressure expressed itself that year.
- Banking and Payments: 1,620 decisions, 19.8% upheld
- Consumer Credit: 1,157 decisions, 17.0% upheld
- Insurance: 869 decisions, 30.0% upheld
- Investments: 130 decisions, 28.5% upheld
- Pensions and Annuities: 118 decisions, 48.3% upheld
Firm and complaint-theme signals
AnalysisBarclays Bank UK PLC, Shawbrook Bank Limited, HSBC UK Bank Plc, and others were the most visible firms in the published decisions for 2026. That does not prove complaint prevalence in a consumer-market sense, but it does show which firms were most exposed in the final ombudsman decisions dataset.
Complaint-theme tagging pointed most strongly to delay in claim handling, fraud or scam concern, affordability assessment failure, and others. These themes are the most useful public proxy for “complaint type” in this corpus because the raw decisions are not stored with a dedicated complaint-type field.
- Most frequent precedent signal: Consumer Credit Act 1974
- Second precedent signal: Section 140a Cca
- Primary complaint theme: Delay In Claim Handling
Representative cases
Recent published decisions in this slice
5 examples shown
DRN-476287721 Apr 2026Not upheld
Mitsubishi HC Capital UK Plc · Consumer Credit
My decision is that I do not uphold this complaint. Under the rules of the Financial Ombudsman Service, I’m required to ask Mr M to accept or reject my decision before 19 May 2026.
View source decisionDRN-480026321 Apr 2026Not upheld
Shawbrook Bank Limited · Consumer Credit
I do not uphold this complaint. Under the rules of the Financial Ombudsman Service, I’m required to ask Mrs C and Mr S to accept or reject my decision before 19 May 2026.
View source decisionDRN-581467321 Apr 2026Not upheld
GROVE PENSION SOLUTIONS LTD · Pensions and Annuities
For the reasons explained, I’m not upholding this complaint. Under the rules of the Financial Ombudsman Service, I’m required to ask Mr R to accept or reject my decision before 19 May 2026.
View source decisionDRN-590575121 Apr 2026Not upheld
TSB Bank plc · Banking and Payments
My final decision is that I don’t uphold this complaint. Under the rules of the Financial Ombudsman Service, I’m required to ask Mr M to accept or reject my decision before 19 May 2026.
View source decisionDRN-590628621 Apr 2026Not upheld
Metro Bank PLC · Banking and Payments
My final decision is that I do not uphold this complaint about Metro Bank PLC. Under the rules of the Financial Ombudsman Service, I’m required to ask D to accept or reject my decision before 19 May 2026.
View source decision