Competition Commission issues statement on its investigation
- 4TH MAY 2007
On April 12 2007, the Competition Commission issued a statement regarding its ongoing investigation into the payment protection insurance (PPI) market. This initial offering is an issues statement to identify the areas of the market they will be investigating.
The issues statement has identified specific areas of the payment protection insurance industry that will be looked at in the immediate future to determine the extent of competition among the providers. From there, the Competition Commission will be able to identify any restricting or preventative factors that may hinder healthy competition.
This report is the first of what may well be many. The Competition Commission have set a deadline of February 2009 for the conclusion of their investigation with their first full report on the payment protection insurance market due this autumn after the first wave of hearings.
The hearings taking place between May and July 2007 will be with parties involved in the ongoing Financial Services Authority (FSA) investigation into payment protection insurance. They may actually give an insight into why there has been little competition within the marketplace until now.
Industry expert and staunch campaigner for the fairer treatment of customers, Simon Burgess says that while they welcome these latest developments, the Competition Commission is still being “too slow”.
Burgess, who heads up the independent payment protection provider British Insurance says that with a proposed conclusion date of February 2009, until then customers are still being left vulnerable to being sold over priced and sometime unsuitable policies.
He asks: “Surely with all the investigative work having being done previously by the FSA and the Office of Fair Trading in to the payment protection insurance market, it is a simple case of implementing new measures in order to protect the customer?”
