Payment protection insurance (PPI) continues to take the top spot for complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service with 1,500 cases each day.

PPI represents more than half the total number of complaints to the FOS and it has now received over 400,000 PPI cases in total.

The FOS said it is not always clear whether a business simply gave its customer information and allowed them to make their own informed choice – or whether it gave them advice and recommended a policy.

The FOS said it finds in favour of the consumer in seven out of 10 cases.

Claims management companies are actively prompting consumers to claim even if they have not been mis-sold a policy or even have a PPI policy, according to the FOS. Customers are then charged a fee of 25% of any payout, plus VAT.