Retail banks dominate the complaints handling data for the first half of 2011, publishing by the FSA today.

Barclays, Santander and Lloyds TSB took the top three positions.

The total overall number of complaints increased by 3% to 1,852,284 in the first half of the year.

Complaints about ‘general insurance and pure protection’ increased by 18% to 848,357 and 560,892 of these were as a result of ‘advising selling and arranging’ causes. Overall, complaints about ‘advising, selling and arranging’ increased by 21% to 648,924.

Included in the ‘general insurance and pure protection’ figures, the total number of complaints about PPI increased by 23% to 531,667.

Complaints about ‘terms and disputed sums or charges’ continued to fall this half year and were the lowest since the first half of 2008 at 429,423.

The number of banking complaints were at their lowest level since the first half of 2008 at 812,197. This is a 10% decrease on the previous half year and is 22% down on a year ago.

The rise in complaints about PPI, combined with the legal case, resulted in the percentage of general insurance and pure protection complaints closed within eight weeks decreasing from 84% in 2010 H2 to 72% in 2011 H1, contributing to the fall in the total number of complaints closed within eight weeks.

The total number of closed complaints decreased by 9% to 1,562,287. This was mainly caused by the number of closed banking complaints which decreased by 15% to 834,145.

The FSA reported that the percentage upheld remained stable, increasing from 49% in 2010 H2 to 50% in 2011 H1.

The total amount of redress paid decreased by 11% from £459 million in 2010 H2 to £409m in 2011 H1. Within this, the decrease of 18% in redress paid for general insurance and pure protection will also have been affected by firms placing some of their PPI complaints on hold during the judicial review.

Kenn Taylor, director, financial services, at global advisory firm Navigant, said: “Whilst the numbers are important