Have you heard that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) may be
bowing to pressure and introducing a deadline for PPI compensation
claims? What does it mean? And why are the FCA thinking of
introducing a deadline?
The FCA up until recently, has always been quite clear that a
PPI deadline was some time away. The banks had asked and pressured
for a deadline on several occasions previously, but had always been
decisively and sharply rebuffed.
Dragging on and on
The first PPI compensation payments were made in January 2011
and now, a full six years and £25.5 billion later, the FCA has
decided that a deadline is needed to draw a line under the whole
unfortunate and embarrassing episode.
A change at the top
Some commentators note that this conciliatory tone within the
FCA has come about since a change in the head of the FCA. Outgoing
head Martin Wheatley was stringent in his dislike for a PPI
deadline and even less impressed by the banks calling for an end to
the mess that they had effectively created.
The new head of the FCA, appointed a year ago in January 2016,
Andrew Bailey seems to have a less rambunctious tone toward the
British banks and lenders.
Chaotic and deep
There are times when you could describe the PPI compensation
process as chaotic.
Back in 2011, the banks made derisory offers of a few hundred
pounds to customers who were owed thousands.
Then banks were suggesting that they didn't hold the information
to give customers the details they needed to lodge a PPI
complaint.
Customers were also having perfectly reasonable and obvious PPI
compensation claims turned down thus, resources at the Financial
Ombudsman were being swallowed by thousands of PPI compensation
cases every month that should have quickly and easily resolved by
the banks in the first place.
Then, it became clear that bank staff who sold PPI has made
large commissions on sales of PPI something the Supreme Court ruled
was unfair.
The PPI saga has also run into billions, with the current total
standing at twice the budget for the Summer Olympic Games back in
London, 2012.
It is a deeper chasm of embarrassment than anyone could possibly
imagine back in the mid-1990s when the sale of PPI was referred to
the then Competition Commission.
The deadline stands
If the deadline is confirmed as being June 2019, if you don't
claim PPI compensation before this date, it will be too late. Call
us now - we can help.