Japan’s largest general insurance companies face penalties after acknowledging they failed to pay about 262,000 claims valued at about ¥16.2 billion ($184 million).

This came after Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) ordered 26 non-life insurance companies in August to investigate whether there were any cases of non-payment.

Last year the Ministry of Finance found that 26 groups, including the top six companies, had failed to make payments on hundreds of thousands of claims. It issued a business improvement administrative order to each of them the following month.

At that time, the top six reported they had failed to pay benefits in 144,000 cases. But the latest internal investigation, which covers from April 2002 to June 2005, shows the total was almost double the original figure.

The FSA has been trying to clamp down on unscrupulous behaviour in the financial sector. The companies said the unpaid claims often resulted from their failure to check the full extent of payments policyholders were entitled to when they made claims.

Some of the six largest non-life insurance companies – Tokio Marine and Nichido Fire Insurance, Sompo Japan, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, Aioi Insurance, Nipponkoa Insurance and Nissay Dowa General Insurance – could face penalties if there has been serious negligence or malicious intent.