The number of consumer complaints against financial firms fell 7 percent on year in the first-half of this year, official data showed Thursday.

The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said it received a total of 42,725 consumer complaints in the January-June period, compared with 45,922 complaints for the same period in 2020.

The decline was mainly due to the base effect of last year, when financial complaints grew over the COVID-19 pandemic, the FSS said.

Deceptive sales of investment products, disputes over insurance payouts and technical problems on stock trading systems topped consumer complaints in the first half, the FSS said.

Complaints against banks were down 3.8 percent on year to 5,875, while those against brokerage firms jumped 20.5 percent on year to 2,815, according to the data.

Complaints against life insurers declined 13.1 percent on year to 9,449 and those against non-life insurers fell 2.9 percent on year to 15,689, the data showed. (Yonhap)