Final deadline for claiming PPI compensation set

People seeking compensation for the mis-selling of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) have until 29 August 2019 to make a claim, says the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

A two-year public awareness campaign will be launched in the run-up to its deadline as the regulator attempts to "draw a line" under the scandal, says the BBC.

FCA chief executive Andrew Bailey said: "Putting in place a deadline and campaign will mean people who were potentially mis-sold PPI will be prompted to take action rather than put it off.

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"We believe that two years is a reasonable time for consumers to decide whether they wish to make a complaint."

PPI was mis-sold on an "industrial scale" over the course of 20 years, starting from 1990, says the BBC. Millions have already been compensated and banks have set aside more than £40bn to pay customers.

An unintended consequence of the deadline will probably be a "fresh wave" of annoying calls and texts by firms offering to make claims for customers for a fee.

Nuisance calls might have been avoided had banks been more proactive in compensating the customers to whom they mis-sold PPI, campaigners say.

Consumer group Which? said: "It has been clear for years that the banks should be working much harder to resolve PPI claims fairly. The current process has been wholly inadequate and driven too many consumers to use claims management companies.

"Now the regulator has confirmed a deadline for the victims of this mis-selling scandal to make a claim, it must ensure that banks are doing much more to help customers get back the money they are owed."

In the six months to the end of December 2016, 78,000 new PPI claims were made to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Watchdog set to agree PPI claims deadline

16 June

Britain's banks might have secured a key victory in their bid to cap the costs of the rolling payment protection insurance (PPI) scandal, which has so far cost the sector more than £24bn in compensation.

The Times reports that internal documents obtained by We Fight Any Claim, a claims management firm that targets PPI claimants, show that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is to announce it will go ahead with a two-year cut-off for complaints.

The FCA originally proposed the deadline in October, saying the number of claims was declining overall and that a growing proportion were now "unfounded" or related to the period prior to 2005, before it was handed oversight of general insurance sales. Banks themselves are keen for a cut-off that will cap their potential liabilities.

However, the documents also reveal that experts to the FCA warn that a deadline publicised only in a blanket fashion may fall foul of the regulator's own Treating Customers Fairly guidelines. Instead, they propose banks should be forced to directly contact all potentially eligible claimants.

The lenders are resisting this, as they say their records may not be up to date. We Fight Any Claim has pledged to launch a judicial review into any claims cap on any terms.

Some analysts are critical of what they see as the latest sign that the FCA is cosying up to banks after it controversially dropped an industry-wide review into conduct earlier this year. BBC journalist Paul Lewis says the decision is flawed as most of the consumers who were mis-sold PPI have yet to claim.

The launch of the original consultation last year saw shares in Lloyds surge. The bank is the most exposed in the insurance scandal and accounts for more than half of the overall £24bn paid so far.

But its shares fell today – down 1.6 per cent against a 0.8 per cent slide on the wider FTSE 100 – as the financial sector was hit by concerns over the global economy, especially ahead of the EU referendum next week.