The final phase for the FSA
- 2ND MAY 2007
The Financial Services Authority investigation into the selling techniques applied to payment protection insurance has identified that a number of lenders were not treating customers fairly by the end of 2006 so it came as no surprise when they announced in January that they were to take a different approach to it in the new year. Mystery shoppers were to be employed in order to effectively assess lenders’ compliance with new regulations.
The FSA announced there were to be around 200 providers included in this final phase of investigations, including those previously assessed and fined. This phase has the simple but important aim of improving the quality of sales and the level of service for consumers.
The FSA have also announced that a new website will be established in order to educate consumers about payment protection insurance. This will inform consumers of their rights as well as general information about the product so that the level of knowledge will rise and mis-selling will become less common.
The education of the masses and the mystery shopping initiative will run alongside each other in order to improve the payment protection insurance side of the industry for consumers.
The FSA will stress the importance of shopping around for payment protection insurance as well as alerting consumers to the existence of the standalone policy. The latter is offered by specialist companies like independent
payment protection insurance provider British Insurance which strives to help the consumer by offering a tailored income protection policy to suit individual needs at around 80% less.
