The Financial Services Compensation Scheme paid out £527m during 2019/20, its annual report shows.
The FSCS says that it helped a total of 258,119 customers during the year, 79 per cent of whom were satisfied with the job performed by the regulator.
The claims paid out concerned 874 different firms, including some of the 137 that failed during the year and were funded through levies raised on 49,105 regulated firms.
The report says that the handling cost of like-for-like cases dropped 8 per cent through savings and efficiencies.
It adds that there were 695 complaints about how the FSCS itself handled these claims, and 1,478 customers required a review of its claim decision.
In the year ending 31 March 2020, £6m in compensation costs were paid out from the home finance intermediation sector, down from the £9m recorded at the year ending 31 March 2019.
This, says the FSCS, is because over the last five years, 70 per cent of compensation costs in this class have been down to the failure of Fuel Investments Limited, the claims against which have now fallen to £2m.
There were 1,441 new claims against home finance intermediation in 2019/20, with 122 upheld. The average payout was £46,929.
This compares to 1,624 claims with 212 upheld and an average payout of £44,462 in 2018/19.
FSCS chief executive Caroline Rainbird says: “It is now just over a year since I joined FSCS and I want to pay tribute to my colleagues, for making sure that we put customers, levy payers and key stakeholders at the heart of everything we do.
“Their dedication and commitment have been, and continue to be, particularly evident during the coronavirus pandemic, which is a difficult and troubling time for us all.
Rainbird also discusses the impact of the lockdown on the regulator: “We have not lost a single day’s work since we went into lockdown in mid-March and this is an outstanding testament to the resilience of our staff and partners to continue to deliver business as usual.”
