When a complaint is received by us the following actions will be taken:

1. We will acknowledge your complaint by the close of the next business day following receipt or as soon as possible thereafter. We may also be able to resolve your complaint within this timescale. This applies to any complaint made in writing of verbally. There is no need for you to put a verbal complaint into writing. When receiving written correspondence from us in relation to a complaint we will enclose a copy of this internal complaints procedure. We will also make sure that we tell you who will be dealing with the complaint.

2. Should for any reason a decision not be reached on your complaint within 4 weeks of receipt we will write to you. This letter will advise why this is the case, confirm that our investigations are still on-going and provide you with a likely timeframe as to when we expect to be in a position to issue a final decision on the matter.

3. After a further 4 weeks, i.e. 8 weeks from the date when the complaint was received, should a decision still not have been reached, we will write to you again. We will again advise why this is the case, confirm that our investigations are still on-going and provide you with a likely timeframe as to when we expect to be in a position to issue a final decision on the matter. However, it should be noted at this point that we will provide you with referral rights to take the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) should you be dissatisfied with the length of time it is taking for the matter to be resolved and subject to you being an ‘eligible complainant’.

Please note that a final decision letter may be issued at any point in this process and this purely depends on how long it takes to fully investigate your complaint. When a final decision is reached, it will be communicated to you in writing and will contain the following information:

1. We will accept the complaint and where appropriate offer suitable redress; or
2. We will offer redress but without accepting the complaint; or
3. We will reject the complaint, giving you the reasons for doing so
4. Where eligible, you will be informed of any rights you may have to refer the matter to the FOS, within six months of the date of the final response letter, should you remain dissatisfied with the outcome. A copy of the FOS Leaflet will also be provided.