Some of the UK`s biggest banks could face massive fines for delays in settling PPI claims, warns Michelle Barrett, Director of Bolton based claims firm Credit Claims. It follows the announcement by the FSA that it has hit the COOP bank with a fine of £113,300 for putting complaints on hold when it should have been investigating them properly. In early 2011 many banks decided to put some PPI claims on hold pending the outcome of a court decision, despite being warned by the regulator not to do so. Michelle Barrett said `It is shocking that most of our banks just seem to do pretty much what they want, with little or no regard for their customers or the rules set by their own regulator. Given that most of the banks decided not to pay out until they lost the court case, it meant huge delays for many customers. I would not be surprised if further fines followed for the Big Five banks` PPI was a form of sickness and redundancy insurance added to loan and credit card payments. It was mis sold to millions of people and the banks have set aside possibly as much as £15 billion to cover the cost of ppi compensation. Michelle Barrett added `PPI mis selling is the biggest financial scandal to have hit UK consumers but it is far from being the only one. We are dealing with an increasing number of elderly people who have invested savings on the advice of bank financial advisers, only to see a big proportion of their money disappear. With low savings rates many customers are talked into taking out risky stock market linked products like Bonds and ISA`s. The problem is that the true risks are rarely explained to the customers.` In January 2011 Barclays was fined over £7 million for mis sold investments and later that year HSBC was hit with an even bigger fine for similar failings. `Mis sold investments is without doubt the `hidden banking scandal`. It seems to have been overlooked with all the furore over PPI and consumers need to know that they can do something about it` commented Michelle Barrett
I have over 20 years experience in Retail Banking and Financial Services having worked in a variety of management roles. I started my own business in Oct 2006 as an Independent Mortgage Broker and…
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