Complaining in Consumer Credit: Evidence from the Italian Financial System

In many countries, Banking Authorities have adopted an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) procedure to manage complaints that customers and financial intermediaries cannot solve by themselves. As a consequence, banks have had to implement complaint management systems in order to deal with customers’ demands. The growth rate of customer complaints has been increasing during the last few years. This does not seem to be only related to the quality of financial services or to lack of compliance of banking output. Another reason lies in the characteristics of the procedures themselves, which are very simple and free of charge. The paper analyzes some determinants regarding the willingness to complain.