LONDON, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Barclays received themost complaints among Britain's banks in the first half of thisyear, though complaints overall in the sector fell 5 percent,the country's financial watchdog said on Thursday.
The most complained about product was payment protectioninsurance - insurance on loans - with banks having already setaside about 20 billion pounds ($32 billion) to pay compensationfor mis-selling the product.
There were 278,426 complaints about Barclays, down 10percent on the first half of 2013, while Bank of Scotlandreceived the second-highest number of complaints, up 46 percentto 265,640 over the same period.
"It's important that firms now get on top of the issues thatare driving complaints," said Christopher Woolard, director ofpolicy at regulator the Financial Conduct Authority.
"Although it's encouraging to see the total number ofcomplaints fall, there is clearly further work to be done toensure that consumer interests come first."
(1 US dollar = 0.6137 British pound) (Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Pravin Char)