UK banks faced with record PPI complaints
11 Oct 2012
The UK's Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) said that payment protection insurance (PPI) complaints were expected to more than double the record number already predicted for this year.
The FOS has already received around 100,000 PPI complaints in the first six months of this financial year, and warned that consumers may be in for longer waits for justice in case banks failed to clear up complaints quickly and fairly.
The flood of complaints to the ombudsman increased dramatically, with 66,882 new complaints made about PPI between July and September, over twice the 32,445 complaints received in the first quarter of this year.
According to a spokesman for the FOS, with 1,500 new complaints a day and over 3,000 new telephone inquiries a day, it seemed "likely" that the ombudsman would see more than double the 165,000 cases that it had expected.
According to Natalie Ceeney, chief ombudsman, the mis-sales of PPI was by far the biggest misselling scandal seen so far, and the banks faced record levels of complaints.
The ombudsman had received 100,000 PPI complaints in the last six months alone.