Banks and other financial institutions who mishandle customers’ money will have fewer places to hide after the easing of restrictions barring complaints deemed out of time.

Not a single whole-of-life insurance policy has been found to have been mis-sold in the past five years despite more than 830 such complaints being lodged in the same period.

There was a 42% fall in the number of complaints received by the Financial Services Ombudsman in 2014, according to its annual review. 

The company that took over MBNA’s Irish credit card business, Avant Tarjeta, had the highest number of findings made against it by the Financial Service Ombudsman in the second half of last year.