PPI payout deadline considered
The UK’s financial regulator, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is considering a deadline for claims over mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI).
It expects that PPI customers would have until some time in early 2018, meaning lenders and consumers still have more thna 2 years to make claims and settle disputes.
So far more than £20bn has been paid out for PPI mis-selling to more than 10 million consumers.
The policies were supposed to protect people against loss of income or sickness, but were often inappropriate.
The regulator will now launch a consultation, on whether there should be a deadline on compensation claims.
It said there should be a window of at least two years after the deadline is set.
This would not be before the Spring of 2016 – meaning that consumers would have until the Spring of 2018 to make a claim.
Shares in Lloyds, the bank most exposed to PPI, jumped by nearly 3% in early trading.
The number of complaints about PPI is falling, but still runs in to hundreds of thousands every month.
In the first half of 2015 more than 883,000 customers complained about mis-selling, a fall of 16.6% on the same period in 2014.
The FCA said a deadline would “bring the PPI issue to an orderly conclusion, reducing uncertainty for firms about long-term PPI liabilities and helping rebuild public trust in the retail financial sector.
