Topping the list of banks in the U.K. with the largest number of customer complaints were Barclays, Lloyds, and Bank of Scotland. Driving much of that dissatisfaction were reported issues involving misrepresentations made when selling payment protection insurance on charge cards and loans.

Those are among the statistics drawn from tally of complaints lodged against financial institutions from July to December of 2012 that was released on Monday by the Financial Conduct Authority. On April 1, Financial Services Authority, which served as Britain's financial services regulator, ceased to exist with its consumer protection duties split between the new Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority.

The FCA's statistics show that there were 3,422,384 complaints during that time period, a 1 percent increase over the previous six months.

The five firms garnering the most complaints during the second half of 2012, were: Barclays Bank Plc, with 414,302 complaints, a decrease of 6 percent since the first half of 2012; Lloyds TSB Bank with 349,386 complaints (a 19 percent decrease); Bank of Scotland with 338,912 complaints (a 7 percent decrease); MBNA Limited with 270,486 complaints (a 3 percent decrease); and Santander UK, with 237,923 complaints (a decrease of 1 percent).

The FCA notes that, as a potential mitigating factor, ffirms with the largest numbers of customers will typically have the largest number of complaints. It should also be noted that results are divided by separate banking brands, as opposed to parent companies. Lloyds TSB, Halifax and Bank of Scotland are all part of Lloyds Banking Group and, as such, would account for nearly twice as many complaints as was received by Barclays.

Complaints regarding specific financial products decreased in the second half of 2012, with the exception of “general insurance” and “pure protection” products, such as payment protection insurance (PPI), which increased by 5 percent to nearly 2.5 million. PPI complaints alone rose by 5 percent to nearly 2.3 million, 63 percent of all complaints.

The number of complaints about banking products, such as current accounts, savings accounts and credit cards, decreased by 12 percent to 728,284, an 8 percent decrease since the second half of 2011. It is at the lowest half-yearly number of such complaints since 2006.

The top five complained about financial products, in terms of number of complaints opened in the second half of 2012, were:

In an effort to curb questionable sales incentives that can push unsuitable financial products upon consumers, the Financial Services Authority published final guidance relating to such practices in January.

The guidance followed a review of sales incentives at 22 financial institutions. It found that some didn't understand their own incentive programs because they were so complex. There were also, in many cases, inadequate governance and oversight of the design, approval and review of incentive programs. 

At that time, FSA Managing Director Martin Wheatley, who now heads the FCA, said firms would have up to 18 months to show a “back-to-basics approach” to products and sales incentives or risk facing punitive actions. The finalized guidance was intended to establish expectations.

A similar crackdown on questionable incentive practices is also underway in the U.S. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been reviewing sales incentives at credit card companies and, this past summer, with its first public enforcement action, ordered Capital One Bank to refund approximately $140 million to nearly two million customers. The action resulted from a CFPB examination that identified “deceptive marketing tactics” used by Capital One's vendors to pressure or mislead consumers into paying for add-on products, among them payment protection insurance.

The FCA data is available online, broken down as both aggregate and firm-specific data. The regulator requires firms with more than 500 complaints opened in a reporting period to publish this data on their own websites as well. Previous complaints data can be found on the FSA website.