The Financial Services Ombudsman says he is concerned that the volume of complaints to his office remains at record levels.
Bill Prasifka today published his office's bi-annual review, which shows that a total of 3,600 complaints were received in the first six months of the year.
As a result of the office's finding's, Mr Prasifka said that compensation of about €1.3m was paid to complainants by June.
Today's report shows that over 11,250 telephone calls were received by the office while over 42,000 were made to the website.
'The office has managed to deal with a high level of complaints while budget levels were lower than in previous periods,' commented the Financial Services Ombudsman.
Mr Prasifka said the level of compensation paid to consumers so far this year is an indication that some financial institutions are not making sufficient effort to resolve complaints at an earlier stage. He said this would be to everyone's benefit.
The Financial Services Ombudsman has also renewed his call for further powers, to name and shame financial institutions who have had consumer complaints against them upheld.
Mr Prasifka said that most complaints related to the mis-selling of investment products. Those complaints were also upheld at a higher than average rate.
He said some financial institutions stand out more than others, and if he could name those institutions the consumer would be 'better informed and better off'.
He said he believes it would also create healthy competition among financial institutions, and inspire confidence and integrity.
