Banks blasted by watchdog on PPI claim failure
BRITAIN’S biggest banks face more fines and punishments for failing to deal with payment protection insurance (PPI) claims effectively, Financial Conduct Authority head Martin Wheatley told MPs yesterday.
For some banks up to 97 per cent of claims they rejected were later found to be valid by the ombudsman.
“It is outrageous this is still the case. We had been working very hard to look at complaints handling, and we will take more enforcement actions” against two banks, Wheatley told the Treasury Select Committee. One of those is expected to be against Lloyds after malpractice was uncovered at a centre run by Deloitte.
The top watchdog also said efforts to improve the quality of financial advice by forcing advisers to pass more tests had some unintended consequences.
“For people who have portfolios below, say £50,000, are not getting the same kind of service they were getting. That is a concern,” he said, noting it is now more expensive for banks to give advice.