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LONDON, May 29 (Reuters) - Britain's Financial OmbudsmanService received over 2 million enquiries and complaints fromcustomers of financial services companies last year, driven bycases relating to the mis-selling of loan insurance.
The Ombudsman, which settles disputes where financialservices companies and their customers cannot reach agreement,said on Wednesday it took on a record 508,881 new cases, up 92percent on the previous year.
"Too many financial businesses still seem unable to sort outproblems themselves, without the ombudsman having to getinvolved," Chief Ombudsman Natalie Ceeney said on Wednesday.
Payment protection insurance (PPI) made up 74 percent of allcases, with the number of PPI cases rising to 378,699 - morethan double the previous year.
Banks have set aside around 14 billion pounds ($21 billion)to compensate customers wrongly sold PPI policies, which weremeant to protect borrowers against sickness or redundancy butwere often sold to customers who didn't want or need them.
Ceeney told Reuters in March that the number of claimsagainst British banks for mis-sold insurance on loans andmortgages has reached "staggering" levels and will take years topay back.
Britain's biggest four banks - Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays andHSBC - accounted for 62 percent of all complaintsreceived, up from 52 percent last year.
The Ombudsman's involvement resulted in compensation forconsumers in 49 percent of cases.
