£439 million was paid out to victims of payment protection insurance (PPI) mis-selling in January, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has revealed.

The monthly figure has risen since December, when £360 million was paid out.

It brings the total amount paid out for mis-sold PPI since January 2011 to £8.9 billion. The total industry-wide bill is expected to reach up to £15 billion.

The largest monthly payout to date was £735 million, in May 2012.

Earlier this month, Lloyds Banking Group set aside a further £1.5 billion for refunding customers who were mis-sold PPI, bringing its total costs to £6.8 billion since January 2011.

Last month, the Royal Bank of Scotland allocated another £450 million to cover PPI claims, bringing its total to £2.2 billion, while Barclays also set aside a further £600 million in February, taking its total bill so far to £2.6 billion.

In January, the FSA held discussions with the British Bankers' Association over the possibility of setting a deadline for reclaiming PPI, a proposition MoneySavingExpert.com strongly opposes (see the Claim PPI now MSE News story).

The FSA's figures come from the 24 firms responsible for 96% of complaints about PPI sales last year.