FCA: 8.9m PPI complaints were made in the final 14 months before deadline

This is compared with 3.7 million complaints in the first 10 months.

FCA: 8.9m PPI complaints were made in the final 14 months before deadline

In a report outlining the impact of the 29 August 2019 deadline for new payment protection insurance (PPI) complaints, and of the two-year communications campaign that preceded it, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) found that 8.9 million PPI complaints were submitted in the final 14 months.

This is compared with 3.7 million complaints in the first 10 months.

46.7 million checking enquiries were submitted in the 14 months up to 29 August, a significant increase on the first 10 months of the campaign.

The report found that 55% of complaints were submitted by individual consumers and 45% through claims management companies (CMCs).

1.4 million complaints and 16.9 million checking enquiries were submitted in August 2019 alone.

The FCA reported that many of these were submitted in the final hours and days before the deadline.

In the three months after the deadline, firms received around 50,000 additional complaints; as at November 2019, 3,000 were found to involve exceptional circumstances causing late submission.

Of the five million complaints that were found to involve a past PPI policy, firms upheld 87%; 71% of complaints assessed mis-selling were upheld, and 54% of those assessed for unfair credit relationships were upheld.

In the last 14 months of the campaign, firms paid out £5.4bn of redress for upheld complaints, compared to £3.7bn in the first 10 months.

The average redress was around £2,000 for mis-sales and £740 for unfair credit relationships.

Jonathan Davidson, executive director of supervision, retail and authorisations at the FCA, said: “PPI is the largest consumer redress exercise in the UK’s history.

“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 in reaching millions of consumers, many of whom were not previously engaged with the PPI complaints process.

“Firms are still handling complaints. We will continue to monitor firms to ensure that those complaints are handled fairly.”