On 20 April 2011, the High Court rejected the British Bankers’ Association’s (BBA) and Nemo Personal Finance Limited’s (Nemo) legal challenge to our payment protection income (PPI) measures.
We introduced these new measures to ensure that customers are treated more fairly when complaining about the sale of a PPI policy. We believe this decision signals the end of years of poor complaint handling and will trigger a dramatic improvement in the way customers are treated when complaining.
However, this is not the end of the process as the BBA and Nemo may seek to appeal the court’s judgment.
Nothing has changed in terms of consumer complaints and you still have the right to complain to your firm about the sale of your PPI policy.
If you are not satisfied with how your firm has dealt with your complaint you can take it to the Financial Ombudsman Service. The ombudsman service is a free, independent service for settling disputes between financial services firms and their customers. You must contact the ombudsman within six months of receiving a response from your firm.
The ombudsman service has a template to register a complaint about PPI, which you can send to the firm that sold you the policy.
Isn’t the whole case over now?
The BBA and Nemo may seek to appeal the court’s judgment.
What was the case about?
The BBA started legal proceedings on 8 October 2010 challenging our ability to insist on new measures, which we introduced to ensure customers are treated more fairly when complaining about the sale of a PPI policy or after making a claim.
These measures include:
- ensuring firms handle complaints properly and offer redress where appropriate;
- explaining when and why firms should review past complaints to identify if there are serious flaws in sales practices that may have affected customers who bought PPI; and
- setting out common sales failings to help firms identify bad practice.
See our previous update on PPI complaints for more information.
Last updated: 20 April 2011
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