PPI claims victory leaves banks short-staffed

Temporary workers to handle flood of loan insurance complaints

by Luke Whitmore, 12th May 2011

The banks are looking to take on up to 6,000 temporary staff solely to handle mis-sold PPI complaints, industry sources have revealed.

After the British Bankers' Association's surrender in the PPI court case against the Financial Services Authority, large financial institutions such as Barclays, Lloyds, RBS and HSBC are facing payouts of billions of pounds to those who were ripped off by having unsuitable or unwanted payment protection insurance (PPI) tacked on to their loans.

But they will be facing further costs on top of that, as such a vast percentage of consumers have been affected by mis-sold PPI that it is feared that the banks' regular call centres will be unable to cope. Lloyds - the bank which is responsible for around 40% of all PPI policies in the UK - is expected to take on at least 1,000 temporary employees to handle the overflow.

PPI, or Payment Protection Insurance, became a target of consumer ire after it was revealed that many financial institutions had used misleading tactics and pressure selling techniques to foist it onto people who did not need it or had no use for it. PPI policies are intended to ensure a borrower can keep up repayments on a loan if they should be unfortunate enough to suffer an unexpected loss of income, but in many cases it was sold to those who would never have been able to make a successful claim, with some people even finding it had been added to their loan without their consent.

With Lloyds alone having set aside £3.2bn, it is expected that a huge number of people will be able to claim compensation for mis-sold PPI policies and premiums that they may have been unfairly paying for years.

If you feel you're one of the many customers who have been a victim of PPI mis-selling, we can help you make a PPI claim today.

Claims Financial