General insurers and “pure protection providers”  have paid more than half of the £284 million ($464 million) cost of compensating aggrieved financial sector consumers.

Complaints data released by UK regulator the Financial Services Authority (FSA) reveals regulated firms received 2.6 million complaints from UK consumers in the last six months of last year.

The figure was skewed by the FSA’s backdated treatment of complaints about banking products – a whopping 2,014,371 claims.

But it was general insurers and pure protection providers ­insurers providing critical illness cover, income protection and non-investment-linked life insurance who paid the majority of compensation, shelling out £144 million ($235 million).

Regulated firms are required to submit complaints data to the FSA every six months, detailing the volume of complaints, how they are handled and the amount of compensation paid.