Natalie Ceeney, chief executive of the Financial Ombudsman Service, has warned insurers that the Ombudsman has seen a rise in complaints about insurance firms.
Speaking to the Association of British Insurers yesterday, Ms Ceeney said insurers would be wrong to presume all complaints were being made against banks.
She said the Ombudsman had seen a rise in complaints about insurers and had found against insurers more frequently in the cases they investigated. For the worst companies, over half of cases investigated were found against them.
This contrasted with complaints about banks and advisers which were gradually reducing and fewer cases were found against them.

Ms Ceeney said: "In short, we're concerned that we're now seeing more going wrong in insurance than we were a few years ago. And that when things are going wrong, they're not being put right sufficiently quickly or sufficiently well."
The majority of complaints were for about service failing to live up to promises made in marketing literature. Customers also complained about when they were dealt with as "numbers rather than humans" and when complaints were seen purely as "compliance activities."
Ms Ceeney said the Ombudsman would be working closely with Martin Wheatley and the Financial Conduct Authority to enable the FCA to "be better placed and more willing to take action where problems have arisen."
She welcomed Government draft legislation to keep the Ombudsman independent and impartial and said this was necessary to maintain the confidence and trust of all parties involved.