Barclays Bank Plc had the largest number of complaints made against it during the second half of 2010, according to new FSA data published today.

Between 1 July and 31 December 2010, the banking giant saw 205,151 new complaints made against it. During this period 227,629 complaints were closed.

Total overall number of complaints to financial services firms increased by 3% to 1,795,182 in the second half of 2010, the FSA has revealed.

Complaints about ‘general insurance and pure protection’ increased by 37% to 710,678 and 454,193 of these were as a result of ‘advising selling and arranging’ causes. Within these figures, the total number of complaints about payment protection insurance increased by 63% to 434,596.

Overall, complaints about ‘advising, selling and arranging’ increased by 47% to 538,427. This is mainly caused by the increase in complaints about payment protection insurance, the regulator said.