UK Insurance, part of the Royal Bank of Scotland, prompted the most general insurance complaints to Britain’s Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) in the first half of this year.

Some 1541 cases of consumer dissatisfaction with the company’s response to a complaint were referred to the ombudsman.

Axa Insurance was second in the list with 557 cases, followed by Aviva Insurance (435).

The top 10 also included Royal & SunAlliance (412), Inter Partner Assistance (383), HSBC (371), Ageas (356), CIS General Insurance (241), Admiral Insurance Company (219) and Lloyds TSB (218).

Allianz (192), Zurich (167) and the Society of Lloyd’s (186) were also in the top 20.

The figures probably reflect the size of the businesses involved, the ombudsman service says.

It received 135,170 new complaints in the half-year, up 27% on the previous corresponding period.

Although the service covers more than 100,000 businesses, 91% of cases concerned only 169 providers.

Complaints about payment protection insurance (PPI), which covers loan repayments, made up 63% of the total, with 85,562 new cases. PPI complaints are not counted in general insurance figures.

Five banking groups accounted for 71% of all new PPI cases.