It has emerged that at least one of the major high street banks in the Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) scandal will not be taking part in the push for a PPI deadline.
PPI or Payment Protection Insurance was forced on consumers in the UK and has been the focal point of much media attention since the ruling in July 2011. This ruling ruled against banks and in favour of consumers with regards to the mis selling of the Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) by banks to it’s consumers for many years.
The British Banker’s Assosiation (BBA) which consists of all the major high street banks, was pushing for a deadline to be placed, so that consumers cannot lodge anymore PPI complaints. However, this deadline was met with fierce opposition from both the public and the Financial Ombudsman who informed us that banks could have profited nearly £40 Billion from PPI over the years. With the current PPI bill standing at around £11 Billion, banks were pushing to cap the total cost of PPI payouts so that they can draw a line underneath it and move on.
However, one of the high street banks does not want to pursue the deadline and will push for the deadline not to be placed in the coming weeks.
Many consumers agree that there should not be a PPI deadline and that banks should now be held accountable for their actions, rather than blaming it on ‘ not knowing it was happening’ mentality.
It comes at a bad time for banks who only last month agreed that they had also mis sold thousands of interest only mortgages and interest only loans, which could mean a further mis selling scandal so damage control is necessary with the Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) scandal.
Lloyds TSB Plc ex CEO Eric Daniels who brought the bank to the brink of collapse during the recession, scaled customers who are rightfully lodging their PPI complaints with the banks and informing that customers who are putting bogus claims are making the total cost of the PPI scandal a lot larger than it needs to be. However, this was met with broad anger from consumers who rightfully can place a PPI complaint if they feel they were mis sold. Also banks are not making it clear how consumers can claim back their PPI so therefore it’s necessary for consumers to place a PPI complaint to see if they were mis sold on multiple loans or credit agreements over the years.
Eric Daniels also went on to say that nearly 50% of the claims that are put in with Lloyds TSB that are paid out infact do not have PPI at all and the bank is merely paying out to please consumers. This not only is false according to both the FSA and FOS but also makes Lloyds TSB look very silly, if they are running a multi billion pound establishment, they ought to have complete control over their operations and only makes them look more unprofessional and prone to criticism.
Barclays Plc also set aside a further £600 million to deal with increasing PPI complaints and fears that the total figure could eclipse the current £11 Billion that has already been paid out to consumers so far.
Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) policies were mis sold on a number of credit agreements such as Credit Cards, Loans and mortgages and were forced onto consumers who did not want or need the expensive insurance policy yet were informed that it was a requirement to gain the credit.
Tactics used by high street banks such as Lloyds TSB, Halifax, Natwest, HSBC, Santander, MBNA, EGG, Barclays have been massively highlighted and brought to light how bad the mis selling really was. With examples such as advisers being paid bosnuses to sell the expensive insurance to customers who would never be able to make a claim on the policy to begin with.
Even though PPI is in fact a useful product when sold correctly as it covers your monthly credit repayments in the event of accident, redundancy or sickness it’s the fact banks and other lenders forced the insurance policy on customers who would never be able to make a claim such as those who are self employed or in The Armed Forces.
Banks have also to answer for their lack of willingness at settling PPI complaints that both CMC and individuals put to them. With tactics from Barclays PLC such as offering customers a minute proportion of what the policy is actually worth and putting it down to admin errors, not upholding customers PPI complaints because they cannot locate policy details even though consumers will provide them details. All these tactics are appauling and the banks should just hold their hands up and agree that there are going to be X amount of policies that have to be paid out on and that consumers should contact them at any time they see fit.
It’s time that banks should be held accountable for their actions and admitting when they are wrong, not constantly putting obstacles and road blocks on valid claims from Fraudulent activity the banks have performed over many many years.
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