What a complaint count does not show

What the bodies say

• CFPB: the database is not a statistical sample of consumers' experiences in the marketplace, and the complaints are not representative of all consumers' experiences with a product or company ¹.
• CFPB: complaints are not information for the purposes of the US Information Quality Act ¹.
• FCA: complaints data should not be used on its own to assess a firm's overall performance ².
• ASIC: a high complaint count does not necessarily indicate poor performance ³.
• FCC: the FCC does not verify the facts alleged in the complaints ⁴.

Firm size

The FCA says larger firms are likely to receive more complaints as they have more customers, accounts or policies ². The CFPB tells users to consider company size and market share, and says companies with more customers may have more complaints than companies with fewer customers ¹. For comparisons between places, it says to consider the size of the population in that area ¹.

Some bodies publish rates that adjust for size. Ofcom publishes UK telecoms complaints per 100,000 customers ⁶. The FCA publishes context data that compares complaints with the size of a firm's business ².

Who filed the complaint

Totals can include complaints filed through third parties. The CFPB 2025 report cites an increase in third parties using the complaint process, including credit repair organizations and those who offer credit advice online and on social media platforms ⁵.

Repeat filings are handled in different ways. The CFPB 2025 report excludes multiple complaints by one consumer on the same issue, and companies returned about 302,200 complaints as company-reported duplicates ⁵. The CFPB complaint form asks consumers to attest that the information given is true to the best of their knowledge and belief ⁷.

What happened next

A count of complaints received says nothing about outcomes. In 2025 the CFPB sent 90% of complaints to companies, referred 3% to other regulators and found 7% not actionable ⁵. Companies closed 53% with explanation, 37% with non-monetary relief and under 1% with monetary relief ⁵.

In the UK, firms upheld 54.8% of the complaints they closed in the first half of 2026 ². The FCA counts a complaint as upheld when the firm agrees with it, fully or partly ². The Financial Ombudsman Service half-yearly table for April to September 2026 lists new cases by business and product ⁸.

Counting rules and revisions

• FCAC: one complaint can be assigned to more than one product, so product totals may exceed the complaint total ⁹.
• ASIC: one complaint can list up to three products, issues and outcomes, and summing across tabs can double count ³.
• FCA: firms below 500 complaints in six months appear only in aggregate totals, not by name ².
• Financial Ombudsman Service: the business table covers firms with both 30 new and 30 resolved complaints in the period ⁸.
• FCA and ASIC: figures for past periods can change when firms correct or amend data ^2,3.