The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. got more than 8,000 consumer complaints about banks last year, according to the agency's annual report. The report, which was mailed last week, said 3,987 complaints concerned state-chartered, non-member banks, which the FDIC supervises. It said 54% were about credit card accounts.
"The most frequent complaints involved billing disputes and account errors, loan denials, credit card fees and service charges, and collection practices," the report said.
The FDIC noted that it established a centralized consumer response center in July to investigate such complaints. Additionally, the report said the FDIC received 7,000 letters and 8,000 phone calls inquiring about deposit insurance and consumer protection issues. It said most inquiries concerned whether a particular financial institution was insured by the FDIC; others concerned banking practices and obtaining credit reports.
The report said that last year the FDIC conducted 2,290 safety and soundness exams of state nonmember banks, 229 exams of savings banks, 10 backup exams of national banks, and five backup exams of state member banks.
The agency also conducted 1,820 compliance exams.
Last year 48 banks and thrifts were removed from the troubled-bank list because of ratings upgrades, mergers, or sales; 63 institutions were added.
