Welcome Finance PPI Claims: The Story so Far

Cattles plc is the parent company of Welcome Financial Services Limited. It was founded by Joseph Cattle in Hull in 1927 and they were listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1963. During the 1960s and 70s they bought up other home collected credit companies to establish a wider UK presence. During the next 20 years, they rebranded and expanded even more.

In 1994, they acquired the Welcome Financial Services Limited. In 2003, Welcome Car Finance was launched as a direct distribution motor finance business and in June 2009, was eventually closed in an effort to improve liquidity.

An Insight

Welcome Finance is a trading name of Welcome Financial Services Limited (WFSL). WFSL is a private company limited by share and has been since January 1914.

There were hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Welcome Finance PPI policies sold to customers, as well as selling various other types of, generally useless, insurances in order to generate profits at the expense of it’s customers.

Problems for WFSL

Welcome Financial Services hit major problems in the late 2000’s due to accountancy manipulation finally catching up with them.

How were WFSL manipulating their finances in order to appear to still be profitable?

Well, if a customer was unable to meet their monthly payment, WFSL took that missed monthly payment and added it to the end of the agreement term, thus making the customer appear to be up to date with their payments. However, as the payment itself wasn’t made, and Welcome Finance were reporting the customer was up to date with their loan, there was a huge overestimation of the amount of money they had actually collected and reported!

Finally, in 2011, the company was declared in default by the regulator. A major factor behind the company being declared in default was their inability to cope with the sheer number of Welcome Finance PPI complaints and compensation payouts.

In 2012, two former directors of WFSL and Cattles were fined and banned by the City regulator for publishing misleading information that had a “devastating” impact on the company shareholders who lost almost all of their investment in the company.

The two who received the fines were James Corr, who was the former finance director at Cattle and he was fined £40,000 which was reduced from £750,000 on ‘hardship’ grounds, while Peter Miller, Welcome’s finance director was fined £200,000 which was reduced from £400,000. Both men have been banned from working in regulated financial services again.

Another member of the Welcome Finance board who has been banned is John Blake, the former managing director. He has also been fined £100,000 which again, was a reduced fee from £400,000.

So, you may be forgiven for thinking there is no way to get your compensation money from Welcome Finance PPI claims? Thankfully this isn’t the case.

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) is a government body set up to protect consumers in events such as this.

The FSCS agreement

Welcome Finance entered into agreement with the FSCS in a deal that saw Welcome Finance continue to deal with a certain number of PPI complaints, and the FSCS would take over the rest.

Since 2011, Welcome Finance continue to deal with complaints about mis-sold PPI on accounts that were opened between 27th February 2003 and 14th January 2005.

The FSCS take care of any complaints being brought about mis-sold Welcome Finance PPI claims on accounts opened from 14th January 2005 onwards.

Did you take your loan out before 2003? We can still help by looking to file a case against the underwriter of the insurance.

Sound confusing? Don’t worry, Your Money Claim deal with Welcome Finance PPI claims, and the FSCS on a daily basis, and know exactly what is required for each type of claim.

Welcome Finance PPI Claims

The policies that have been sold by Welcome are worth a staggering amount of money, well into the hundreds of millions and with the recent news that banks are set to re-open more than two and a half million PPI complaints, why not start your claim with us today?

There are also millions of people who are yet to even make a PPI claim. Statistics suggest that there are still around 7 million people who have yet to make a claim and there is a pot of at least £10 billion still to be claimed in compensation.

We operate a no win, no fee* policy which means that you will always be put first; you can read more about that here. What are you waiting for, start your claim today!

Welcome Finance PPI Claims