There has been a 5.7% rise in the number of complaints against FSA regulated firms during the period 2006-2008.

The regulator added that the speed of firms’ complaints handling and the proportion of complaints upheld by firms remained fairly stable over the period. At the end of 2008, 10% of complaints took longer than eight weeks to resolve and 40% of complaints were decided in customers’ favour.

Dan Waters, FSA director of retail policy and conduct risk, said: “Transparency is an important regulatory tool. Publishing this information will mean that consumers and firms can now see how many complaints the industry receives and how it deals with them. This is stage one of our drive to say more about how the industry handles complaints and builds on our recent proposals