UK general insurance complaints, excluding payment protection, increased in the first six months of the year compared with the second half of last year, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) says.

“Other general insurance” complaints opened in the period numbered 300,903, up 1.4% on the preceding six months.

Overall, consumers made 2.05 million complaints about a range of financial products to banks, insurers, lenders and other businesses, down 2.6%.

Payment protection insurance (PPI) – a specialist product that has been heavily criticised by the regulator and which is sold by banks – remains the main problem area, representing 45% of complaints in the first half.

But the number of new PPI complaints was little changed during the period, at 927,631.

The proportion of complaints upheld for general insurance and pure protection products – including PPI – was the highest across all product groups at nearly 64%, rising from 61% in the second half of last year. The proportion of complaints closed within eight weeks across all areas grew to 93%.