The Financial Ombudsman Service revealed yesterday that 84% of complaints about banking current accounts were justified last year, along with 79% of credit card complaints and 47% of cases involving the mis-selling of payment protection insurance (PPI).

The Financial Ombudsman Service revealed yesterday that 84% of complaints about banking current accounts were justified last year, along with 79% of credit card complaints and 47% of cases involving the mis-selling of payment protection insurance (PPI).

It has reported a combined increase of over 53,000 complaints about banking, credit cards and PPI, outweighing a drop of around 33,000 in mortgage endowment complaints.

The FOS, which had promised more transparency in its annual review, has not previously disclosed details of how successful complaints were in each product area, but had always said that "around a third" of complaints are upheld.

The figures indeed show that only around one complaint in three about most investment and insurance products were upheld, only 30% of mortgage complaints and only 16% about personal pensions, though in motor insurance the uphold rate rose to 45%.

In addition, some 4% of current account and 7% of credit card cases had a "mixed" outcome, which meant that the FOS "agreed with the business's response" in only 12% of complaints about current accounts and 14% of credit card cases.

Additionally, halfway through the year some 14,000 complaints involving overdraft charges were put on hold pending the outcome of the High Court test case brought by the Office of Fair Trading. This along with the easing of the huge volume of mortgage endowment complaints meant that the FOS resolved around 12,000 fewer cases than the previous year at 99,699.

Complaints about PPI rose six-fold during the year to 10,652, with more cases arriving in the first quarter of 2008 than in the whole of 2007. Current account complaints rocketed from 8061 to 39,263 and credit card cases from 2731 to 14,123.

During the year, the ombudsman handled a record 794,648 consumer enquiries and 123,089 new complaints - a 30% annual increase.

The FOS said that while half the disputes related to six of the UK's largest financial services groups - broadly reflecting the amount of business they carry out - more than 95% of businesses covered by the ombudsman service had no complaint referred during the year."

Sir Christopher Kelly, chairman of the ombudsman service, said: "This time last year we had hoped we were starting to see a downward trend in complaint numbers for the first time. But instead, events during the year have led to the ombudsman service receiving record numbers of new cases.

"The sudden surges in banking and insurance disputes this year have meant that predicting, managing and dealing with complaint volumes has been more of a challenge for us organisationally than ever before."

He says that while the FOS welcomes Lord Hunt's proposals for greater transparency in publishing details of companies' records in handling complaints, that might make it "more difficult for our adjudicators to reach informal decisions", agreed with the companies.

The review says 40% of consumers using the service first heard about it through the media, and more than half had said that the existence of the ombudsman increased their confidence in financial services.