Complaints about mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) to the Financial Ombudsman Service averaged 900 a day in the first quarter of the financial year. The Service had its busiest quarter with more than 81,000 complaints.

Tony Boorman, the principal ombudsman, said: “It has been a bit of a roller-coaster.” Some 69 per cent of all complaints – 56,025 – were about PPI, with more than half resolved in favour of consumers.

With banks having lost their High Court challenge to new PPI rules in April – the sector has thus been forced to put aside billions to refund customers – the number of PPI cases taken to the Ombudsman should fall. Along with Barclays’ £1bn PPI hit, the scandal has cost Lloyds Banking Group £3.2bn, RBS £850m,Santander£548m and HSBC £269m.

“Banks and others are already reporting record numbers of new complaints and it will be some time before we see the impact of those on our figures,” said Mr Boorman. “So it’s difficult to tell whether we will be seeing still higher numbers yet – or whether the figures will now start to decline.”

Sally Bowyer, Managing Director of leading financial claims company, BrunelFranklin.com said: “Whilst the rules have been tightened up to prevent the blanket mis-selling of PPI, in theory, the problem is historical and people can often apply for a refund of several years’ worth of premiums plus interest, if they were mis-sold a PPI policy.”

Learn more about PPI refunds and find out if you could apply for a refund today! Visit the website www.brunelfranklin.com or call Brunel Franklin, free, on 0800 051 54 51.