Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) provisions hit £10 billion

PPI now on course to be the biggest consumer financial scandal of all time

HSBC have today announced they have set aside a further £340 million for PPI redress costs,  bringing the total PPI provisions across the banks to a staggering £10 billion.

Last week Lloyds increased the amount set aside for PPI claims to £4.3 billion, and RBS is also expected to set aside more money when it reports its results this Friday.   The total for the five largest banks (HSBC, Lloyds, Barclays, RBS, and Santander) now stands at £8.8 billion.

Which? chief executive Peter Vicary-Smith said:

“These latest figures from the banks show that PPI is now on course to become the biggest consumer financial scandal of all time, exceeding pensions mis-selling and the endowment mortgage scandal.

“The banks must make it straightforward for people to reclaim PPI themselves, for free, so they don’t resort to expensive and unnecessary Claims Management Companies (CMCs).

“We now need the Government to raise its game too, and toughen up the regulation of unscrupulous CMCs who are exploiting consumers who just want to claim back what is rightfully theirs.”

We have been at the forefront of campaigning to make PPI claims easier:

  • Since the launch of our free online complaints tool in 2009, which enables consumers to pursue a complaint to their PPI provider and claim money back themselves, more than 24,250 complaints have been facilitated – with almost 2000 in July this year alone.
  • In April we joined forces with MoneySavingExpert.com increase awareness of how easy it is for consumers to reclaim mis-sold PPI for free and tackle the unscrupulous CMCs who exploit consumers wanting to claim back their money.
  • We’re working together with banks and regulators to make PPI claims as easy as possible and put unscrupulous Claims Management Companies (CMCs) under the microscope.
  • At the end of May 2012, £4.8 billion had been paid out. There is still around £5bn in mis-sold PPI still to be claimed.
  • Our recent research found that a quarter of people didn’t know that claims management companies (CMCs) took a fee, while only half knew that using a CMC would be no more successful than making the complaint themselves.
  • Millions of people have been mis-sold PPI, but up to a billion pounds has already gone to claims management companies when people can reclaim their money themselves and keep all of their reclaimed money.
  • We want the Government to step in to clean up the CMC industry – stamping out cold calling, up front fees and confusing terms and conditions.

Find out more about our PPI campaign.

Statement: , , ,