Banks see doubling of complaints
Complaints about banks doubled in the second half of last year, with financial services groups dishing out £283.6 million in compensation during the period.
A total of 2.2 million bank customers made complaints - twice the number seen during the first half of the year - and banks accounted for most of the complaints made against all financial firms in that period.
But only £46.3 million of the compensation payouts related to banking products, with £143.8 million relating to general insurance and protection products.
Banks paid out the highest level of redress at £202.6 million, followed by general insurance intermediaries at £20.4 million.
The Financial Services Authority said the increase in cases had been driven by banks handling two years' worth of back-dated complaints about unauthorised overdraft charges.
The complaints had been put on hold while a High Court test case between the the banks and the Office of Fair Trading over the charges was carried out.
But the FSA waiver was lifted in December after the banks won the case, leading to them having to formally handle the complaints.
General insurers received the second highest level of complaints at 421,368, 44% of which related to advice and the sale of products, and are likely to relate to ongoing claims for redress following the mis-selling of controversial payment protection insurance.
All other sectors of the financial services industry received fewer than 100,000 complaints during the period.
Just over 89% of complaints were closed within eight weeks, although only 42% were upheld in favour of the consumer.