Why are fewer people complaining about financial firms/products?

Fewer people are complaining for a multitude of reasons. Firstly, it is made too hard where people have to write or email and consumers are time poor now. Many are also of the opinion that there is little point as nothing will be done and their complaint will be just resolved via a small amount of negligable compensation or goodwill with a letter of apology. We also hear all too often that lessons will be learned but they rarely are. It's a perfect storm resulting in people wondering 'what's the point?'.

I would like to think that consumer duty is responsible for improved service and fairness being provided to clients, and therefore less complaints being made. However, the FCA figures show reported complaints as the system requires the company to self-declare these figures in their returns. So it could also be mis-reporting or issues being dealt with and resolved quickly before becoming official complaints. The other alternatve is if clients have become disillusioned about complaints on financial firms and the ombudsman and see it as more hassle than benefit.

Clients are distracted by a flatlining economy, rising inflation, and a stronger Pound, shifting focus from complaints across sectors like banking, home finance, insurance, investments, and pensions. Fading PPI effects, tighter lending rules, and the FCA’s 2016 rule change (3-day informal resolution) likely contributed to the drop, not improved firm behavior. Are firms doing better? Unlikely—the unchanged 58% complaint uphold rate shows persistent issues. It’s too soon to credit Consumer Duty’s July 2023 rollout, as complaints were already declining. High uphold rates and slow resolutions highlight ongoing consumer harm and systemic flaws. Firms must leverage complaint data better, and the FCA should enforce Duty more rigorously to drive real change.