Ombudsman says it is receiving up to 4,500 fresh complaints per week

Consumer complaints about payment protection insurance (PPI ) continue to rocket, according to the latest figures from the Financial Ombudsman Service.

The FOS’ latest quarterly snapshot of its activity shows that it received 24,955 complaints about PPI products in the final three months of 2010.

The figure represented a dramatic increase on 13,520 such cases it received in the three months ending June 2010.

FOS says in its latest update that PPI accounted for exactly half of all complaints it received in the three months ending December.

And the watchdog says that since the recent launch of a judicial review by the British Bankers Association of the FSA's PPI complaints-handling guidance, the FOS has been receiving up to 4,500 payment protection product related cases a week.

A bulletin outlining the figures says: “The sheer volume of these new PPI complaints – and the lack of meaningful cooperation from some businesses – is making it difficult for us to progress all these cases as rapidly as we would like.”

The ombudsman’s report said the picture on PPI ran counter to a general levelling off or drop in complaints about other financial services products.

The sharp rise in PPI complaints is the key factor fuelling the recent increases in the Financial Services Compensation Scheme levy, which Insurance Times' Fair Fees campaign is seeking to reverse.

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