The Financial Ombudsman Service has seen the lowest complaint levels in two years.

Between October and December 2025, the redress service received 47,300 complaints, a marked reduction on the 68,400 complaints recorded over the same three-month period of 2024.

Since the introduction of the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) complaint handling pause and announced plans for a redress scheme for motor finance commission cases, the ombudsman said there has been a substantial decrease in complaints.

Additionally, the introduction of charges for professional representatives has lowered the number of complaints.

The ombudsman said that the market is undergoing the "most significant reform programme for a generation", including the introduction of charges for professional representatives where some, in the past, have brought high numbers of poorly evidenced complaints to the organisation.

According to the service, professional representatives are now bringing better evidenced complaints, with fewer withdrawn and abandoned cases.

For the 2024/25 financial year, the ombudsman said that more than a third of complaints from professional representatives were withdrawn and/or abandoned. This figure has dropped to around a fifth for the period between April 2025 to December 2025.

The organisation added that professional representatives are also bringing fewer irresponsible and unaffordable lending cases.

Between October and December 2025 there were 4,800 new cases compared to 13,200 in the same period of the previous year.

As fewer consumers use professional representatives, the ombudsman said that more people, including vulnerable consumers, are bringing complaints directly to the organisation, allowing a growing number to retain the full value of any redress awarded.

The ombudsman added that it is currently working with HM Treasury and the FCA to modernise the dispute resolution system to ensure that consumers can continue to access a quick, informal and high-quality dispute resolution service.

“Following a period of extraordinary demand, our case volumes are returning to a steady state as measures we have implemented ensure the complaints that come to us are better evidenced and ready to be investigated,” said James Dipple-Johnstone, interim chief ombudsman at the Financial Ombudsman Service. “The changes we have already introduced – and those we plan to make in the future – will allow us to focus on getting back to our core purpose for customers as a quick, informal and high-quality dispute resolution system.”

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