History Of PPI In The UK And Its Importance To Everyone
1. Payment protection insurance, also referred to as PPI, has
been around in the UK for decades. It is really a type of
insurance policy meant to protect financial buyers in case
they become unable to fulfill their loan, mortgage or
perhaps credit card payments because of accident, injury
or perhaps being out of work.
2. Despite being around for decades it was not until 1998,
however, that it became apparent that PPI policies were
being widely mis-sold by unscrupulous companies in the
financial sector including almost all of the main high street
banks. "Which?", the consumer protection magazine, is
often given credit for uncovering the PPI mis-selling
scandal by highlighting the expense of PPI policies and the
very poor claims settlement record. They deemed PPI
policies largely ineffective and very poor value for money.
3. A lot of major newspapers picked up as well as reported
the scandal in the press between 1998 and 2004,
publishing numerous surprising case studies of individuals
who made an effort to claim on their own PPI policy yet
ended up being denied a payout, or who had been told
they had to have PPI as a condition of a loan or credit card
agreement when in fact this was far from the truth.
4. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) stepped in towards
the end of 2004, and began to regulate the sale of
consumer insurance policies, including PPI. In 2005 the
CAB (Citizens Advice Bureau) published a report
highlighting the problems with the systematic mis-selling
of PPI which brought the scandal further forward into the
minds of consumers and and the financial regulator alike.
5. In November 2005, the FSA wrote to all leading bodies in
the banking and financial sector highlighting their
understanding of the problems with PPI mis-selling and
recommending them to create substantial adjustments
and to compensate those people who had been affected
by their specific unscrupulous actions. The time since 2005
has witnessed one bank after another exposed in the
scandal and many of the primary banks and financial
institutions penalized a large amount of cash by the FSA in
response.
6. In 2010 the major banks took an appeal to the High Court
and for the period whilst the actual High Court hearing
was pending most of the banks refused to progress PPI
claims placing customers holding out and out of pocket
with regards to settlement due. Nevertheless, the appeal
process ended in 2011 with the banks being defeated in
their pledge to actually move away from their particular
accountability to pay customers over the mis-selling of
PPI. Just what exactly does all this mean to you? As we
move into 2012, banks have been strongly advised to
proactively interact personally in the computation and
also settlement of compensation for those customers who
have been affected by PPI mis-selling.
7. So what does all this mean to you? As we move into
2012, banks have been firmly told to proactively
cooperate in the calculation and settlement of
compensation for all consumers who have been effected
by PPI mis-selling. But the window of opportunity is
unlikely to stay open forever, so anyone who has PPI
connected to any loan, credit card or mortgage ought to
take their claim forward as soon as they possibly can if
they feel it was mi-sold. So check out the paperwork
relating to any loan, credit card or mortgage you have
taken out over a period of at least 10 years and consider
whether you have cause for a compensation claim for mis-
selling.