The number of complaints made to regulated firms increased in the first half of 2019, according to complaints figures published by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) this Thursday.

In particular, the number of complaints for the first half of the year was 4.29 million. This is higher than the 3.91 million complaints made in the second half of last year by 9.7 percent. It has also grown from the 4.13 million complaints made in H1 of 2018 by 3.9 percent.

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Unsurprisingly, contributing the most to the number of complaints was those regarding Payment Protection Insurance (PPI). Specifically, the number of PPI complaints made up 49 percent of the total complaints made in the first six months of 2019.

The number of investment complaints, which were made to investment companies dealing in all manner of assets, such as foreign exchange (forex), stocks, and more, pale in comparison to PPI.

In fact, for each 1,000 client accounts, 2.1 of those account holders made a complaint in H1 of 2019, which equals a complaint rate of 2 percent. In H1 of 2018, this rate was at 2.2, representing a year-on-year decline. PPI, on the other hand, had a 67 percent complaint rate.

In terms of the total redress paid, consumers were awarded a total of £35.7 million in the first half of 2019. This value is higher than the £32.1 million paid in the second half of 2018 and the £27.5 million in H1 2018 by 11.2 percent and 29.8 percent, respectively.

Investment scams are still a real threat

Although investment complaints might pale in comparison to PPI, that doesn’t mean that scams within the financial industry – particularly investment scams, aren’t a real threat to consumers.

As Finance Magnates reported, earlier this year, the FCA also revealed that Brits lost approximately £27 million ($34.4 million) to foreign exchange and cryptocurrency-related scams in the 2018/2019 fiscal year.

According to the British regulator, authorities received 1,834 scam reports last year. That was almost a four-fold increase on the prior twelve-month period.