The Financial Ombudsman Service revealed a record high of 327,035 complaints for the first half of 2013. The latest report shows that 266,228, 86% of all new complaints made were regarding mis-sold PPI (Payment Protection Insurance).
The four big banks account for over £15bn of the total £17.9bn provision set aside for PPI mis-selling
Lloyds Banking group has become the most complained about financial business in the first half of 2013. Figures show they received 129,293 complaints, up 38% in comparison to the previous six months.
Barclays took the number two slot for most complained about business group. The group received 44,223 claims, with 37,394 of those relating to PPI claims.
The vast majority of PPI complainants had their complaints upheld, with 74% PPI cases resolved in favour of the consumer.
The Royal Bank of Scotland group including NatWest tackled a total 22,940 complaints, RBS upholding 34% and NatWest 38% in favour of the consumer.
HSBC increased 11 % in complaints in comparison to the second half of 2012. The FOS received 18,444 complaints in total, 12,224 of which related to PPI.
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The latest saga regarding Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) found new problems with complaint handling procedures by many financial firms.
The Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) latest report shows two thirds of the 18 companies spot checked have been handling PPI complaints unfairly, leaving just six to be delivering fair outcomes.
The companies in question were mid-sized to smaller lenders dealing with around 16 percent of the industries’ total, approximately 1 million in PPI complaints.
The Director of Supervision at the FCA, said: “We expect firms to deliver fair outcomes to PPI complainants. In our review, we found that some firms are doing this while it is clear others still have some way to go”.
The Regulators have now addressed larger firms handling PPI complaints. The result of this assessment will be published at a later date.
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Talks by various Banks regarding an agreed deadline for the end of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) compensation failed due some of Britain’s largest lenders being unable to reach a decision.
This means that many of Britain’s largest lenders could potentially face several more years of handling PPI Claims as the industry continues to be flooded with customers reclaiming PPI.
The British Bankers’ Association, the trade body of the banking industry, had been leading the negotiations, but officials there are understood to have concluded that a deal was impossible, due to differences of opinion between the lenders themselves and leading consumer groups.
Lloyds Banking Group has reportedly been fined up to £4.3 million by the City watchdog today it was revealed. Approximately 140,000 Lloyds TSB customers have had their payment protection insurance (PPI) compensation payments delayed.
The customers were not paid redress within 28 days of receiving a decision letter and almost 9,000 had to wait more than six months for their compensation, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) said.
The payments were identified as a result of aggrieved customers calling Lloyds chasing payment and media attention highlighting the plight of affected customers.
The failings relate to Lloyds TSB, Lloyds TSB Scotland and Bank of Scotland and resulted in a total fine of £4.3 million.
...The FSA found failings in approximately 40 per cent of telephone sales of credit card PPI made by Egg between January 2005 and December 2007. Egg sold PPI either when receiving a customer services call, or when making a sales call to a new customer. When Egg customers said they did not want PPI on their credit cards, the firm directed its sales staff to use techniques to persuade the customer to take the insurance – called ‘objection handling’.
These techniques included over-emphasising the positive features of the PPI, or telling the customer they could take the PPI for a free period and cancel it later if they did not want it. In some cases, even when the customer did not consent, PPI was applied to their credit card anyway.
In addition, in a significant number of cases Egg failed to obtain clear consent from customers to receive only limited information about the PPI during the telephone sale. Egg will write to customers asking them to call a dedicated number if they have any concerns about the policy or the way it was sold to them and compensate them where appropriate – by way of illustration, Egg is expected to pay £1.67 million for every 10% of customers who receive a refund.
full article here
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The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) faces a fresh wave of payment protection insurance related claims after declaring loan provider Welcome Financial Services Limited (WFSL) in default.
The FSCS has said that the firm is unable, or likely to be unable, to pay claims against it in relation to what it described as a “substantial number” of PPI policies that it has sold since 2005. Welcome Finance is no longer taking new applications for personal and secured loans such is the scale of it’s financial woes. Welcome Finance sold a substantial number of PPI policies to its customers, and a declaration of default opens the way for those customers, and any others who might have valid claims against the firm that are protected by the FSCS, to make a claim.
In an agreement between the FSCS and WFSL, the FSCS will base some of it’s staff within WFSL and use records provided in order to process claims. WFSL will continue to process PPI claims for customers who were sold a PPI policy between 2003-2005, with the FSCS picking up the compensation tab for policies sold from 2005 onwards.
Further to this, we can still look to file cases against the underwriter of the insurance if you took your loan out prior to 2003.
There are hundreds of thousands of customers who may have been mis-sold PPI by WFSL, and although the process may be a little more complicated, Your Money Claim have the knowledge and experience to navigate it, and reclaim any mis-sold PPI by WFSL.
One of the most scandalous parts of this saga is that WFSL generated huge profits whilst selling PPI and other insurances to it’s customers, many of whom will be completely unaware that they have been duped by the company. The lender offered huge incentives to it’s staff, and clearly didn’t have adequate controls in place to ensure the policies were correctly sold, probably due to the huge profits they were generating.
WFSL have clearly been acting irresponsibly for such a long period of time, and now appear to be shunning their responsibility in paying out compensation to the hundreds of thousands of customers who are due a refund. Many of these customers may have found themselves in financial difficulties due to the additional costs added to their loans. What will WFSL do for these customers who may have defaulted on loans, or even had County Court Judgements (CCJs) registered against due to not being able to pay for the costs of the PPI that was illegally added to their loans? We shall have to wait and see.
Speak to Your Money Claim, we are experts in recovering mis-sold PPI from companies just like Welcome Finance. If you’ve had a loan with them, even if you don’t remember account details, we can help. We will do the checks, and manage your claim throughout the process, keeping you up to date at all times. We’re on hand to answer any questions, so why not get the ball rolling today. There is a good chance you didn’t even know you had PPI.
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