Banks hit by 20,000 PPI complaints every day before deadline

Victims of Britain’s biggest ever mis-selling scandal lodged more than 20,000 PPI claims per day against banks and other lenders in a huge rush to meet the final deadline, the City watchdog has revealed. 

The Financial Conduct Authority said many were encouraged by the publicity blitz it launched in the summer of 2019 to warn consumers that they had limited time left to make a complaint. 

The advertisements featured an animatronic likeness of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator character, which urged people to ‘do it now’ before it was too late. 

The FCA yesterday revealed that 8.9million complaints had been submitted in the 14 months leading up to last August’s deadline. 

About 6.2million customers visited the regulator’s PPI website and 110,000 called its telephone helpline. 

Overall, the FCA said more than 32.4million complaints had been made and £38billion paid out in damages. Analysts expect the final bill paid by banks to surpass £50billion, with Lloyds Banking Group setting aside £22billion.   

Jonathan Davidson, the FCA’s executive director of supervision, retail and authorisations, said the PPI scandal was ‘the largest consumer redress exercise in the UK’s history’. 

He added: ‘We set out to bring the issue of PPI to an orderly conclusion and prompt consumers who wanted to complain about PPI to act. Our campaign was a success.’ 

PPI, or payment protection insurance, was designed to cover loan repayments if borrowers fell ill or lost their job. 

But it became one of the biggest financial scandals in recent history after many PPI products were sold to borrowers who did not want or need them. 

The FCA said its efforts to tackle the problem had included making it easier for bank customers to check whether they had been sold PPI, and putting pressure on lenders to pay out valid claims promptly.