Bank of Scotland received the most complaints about home finance, including mortgages and equity release, in the first half of 2016, according to the Financial Conduct Authority.

The regulator recorded that the lender received 9,894 complaints on home finance in the first six months of the year.

But it was Barclays that got the dubious honour of the most complaints overall, with 287,463, an increase of 3% since the second half of 2015. Lloyds Banking Group came second with 213,163 complaints.

In total, consumers made more than two million complaints about financial services firms in the first half of 2016, with Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) topping the charts as the most complained about product (927,000).

There was a 2.6% reduction in new complaints compared with the previous six months, and consumers received a total of £1.96bn in redress, 1% lower than the amount paid between July and December 2015.

Christopher Woolard, director of strategy and competition at the regulator, said: “To see another six months of reduction in the total number of complaints is encouraging.

“Firms still need to continue to ensure they are doing all they can to reduce consumer dissatisfaction, but the figures show firms are taking our feedback seriously.”