The ombudsman received 195,581 new enquiries and 83,754 new complaints in the three months to December 2019. It took on 9,160 cases in the period.

Broken down by product, PPI complaints surged 72% from 24,073 in the previous quarter to 41,510 at the end of the year, which was after the August 2019 PPI complaints deadline.

In total, it received 70,486 enquires but only took on 1,772 cases which resulted in 17% being upheld.

Overall, its uphold rate for the quarter stood at 34% of the complaints resolved.

The ombudsman said it also received a significant number of complaints about consumer credit, such as payday loans (8,028 of which 4,264 were taken on) and instalment loans (5,022 inquiries received of which 4,535 new cases were taken on).

Both of these carried a high average uphold rate of 73% and 75% respectively. The highest uphold rate related to guarantor loans (90%) while the lowest was for personal accident insurance (7%).

Figures from the Claims Management Ombudsman, part of FOS, revealed it received 780 new inquiries and 407 new complaints against claims management companies (CMC) between October and December 2019. It took on 69 cases and had an average uphold rate of 44%.

Again, PPI claims continued to be the most-complained about CMC service, with three quarters of all complaints linked to these claims.

It said consumers complained about CMCs which failed to process their PPI claim with their bank before the deadline, meaning their claim wouldn’t be considered.

The ombudsman noted: “We know that many lenders have significant backlogs, which mean many customers won’t know yet if their complaints have been time-barred. People have contacted us as their CMC has not been updating them.”