It has published its annual review covering the financial year, which reveals that in 2010/11 it received 7,067 mortgage complaints, down from 7,469 in 2009/2010 and 7,602 in 2008/2009. However 51% of the new cases were about the sale of payment protection insurance (PPI) with the number more than doubling to 104,597 – the highest number ever received in a year about a single financial product

Natalie Ceeney, chief executive of FOS and chief ombudsman, says: “This year has been the busiest in our 10-year history – with over 200,000 disputes referred to us and a million front-line enquiries. This reflects the increased confidence of an ever more diverse range of consumers getting in touch about a wider range of problems and issues.

“Aside from PPI cases, over the year we’ve seen encouraging signs of improvements in the way that some businesses are handling complaints – and it’s good to see that the number of disputes about some other financial products has started to fall.”