Barclays PLC (BCS) Monday said it would reimburse all customers who complained about mis-sold payment protection insurance on or before April 20, as a gesture of goodwill for those whose claims had been put on hold pending the outcome of a legal case.
A spokesman said those customers would get a full refund of the PPI premiums they had paid, as well as 8% compensatory interest.
Barclays and its U.K. bank peers in May dropped a legal fight to delay or change the terms of PPI repayments, which are being made after the industry conceded that customers for years had frequently bought insurance they didn't understand or that wasn't suitable for their needs.
The spokesman said the bank hasn't changed its estimated GBP1 billion provision to settle all PPI claims. Customer complaints made after April 20 will continue to be considered for reimbursement in line with guidelines put in place by the U.K. Financial Services Authority last year.
"Working in close cooperation with the FSA and the [Financial Ombudsman Service], and in recognition of the delay customers have experienced whilst awaiting the outcome of the High Court judgment, we can confirm that we are contacting customers whose complaint was put on hold on or before April 20 with an offer to settle their complaint in full as a gesture of goodwill," Barclays said in a statement.
"We have said before that when we get things wrong, we apologize, and work hard and work fast to put them right as quickly as possible," the bank said.
The sale of PPI policies to cover customers payments on mortgages and credit cards and personal loans was a booming, multibillion-pound business for the U.K. banking industry in the 2000s but tapered off in the past few years as regulatory authorities started to crack down on how some of the policies were marketed. The FSA implemented new rules last year that were contested by banks until their step-down over the issue in May.
The FSA on Monday laid out a new timeline for PPI complaints to address the backlog many banks face. It said Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LYG) and Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBS) have until the end of August to deal with complaints that were put on hold during the legal proceedings. Those received after the legal case was dropped on May 9 and before Aug. 31 must be responded to within 16 weeks, while PPI complaints received between Sept. 1 and Dec. 31 must be responded to within 12 weeks.
After that, the previously set response time of eight weeks must be met, the FSA said.
0 comments:
Post a Comment