BANKS paid out £176 million last month in redress to small businesses who were mis-sold interest rate hedging products, taking the total pay-outs to £482m.

Of 18,800 firms in the mis-selling review, over two-thirds have now had their assessment by the banks, with 96% of sales found to be non-compliant.

So far 8,400 redress determination letters have been sent out to SMEs, but only 3,430 have accepted either full 'tear-up' (of agreement) offers or alternative products. The Financial Conduct Authority has approved no payment of redress in 962 cases. The regulator made no comment on the monthly statistics. Last month it said the banks were on track to complete the process by the end of May.

In February RBS increased its provision for mis-selling interest rate swaps from £50m to £700m and Lloyds hiked its provision from £400m to £530m. The big banks have so far provided around £3bn, and Clydesdale owner NAB has said it will be increasing its provisions.

However one adviser, Daniel Hall at All Square, said: "What these figures do not really reveal is what is fast becoming the single biggest concern for the banks involved - the issue of consequential loss. We estimate that the final bill for consequential losses could be as high as £6bn."

Campaign group Bully Banks won a ruling last November from the FCA that banks should pay out primary losses without delay, then negotiate on consequential losses.

RBS made over 700 new offers last month to take its total to 3159 while Lloyds has made 953 offers. Smaller banks account for only 775 cases in the review.