The referral to the competition commission
- 23RD MAY 2007
Payment protection insurance (PPI) is certainly a controversial subject at the moment. After over a years’ worth of Financial Services Authority and Office of Fair Trading investigations, a ruling was made earlier in the year to transfer the investigation onto the Competition Commission as a result of a lack of competition in the marketplace that has resulted in consumers getting a raw deal.
The Office of Fair Trading initially recommended the transfer in October 2006 because of the amount of complaints consumers had been making as a result of being mis-sold payment protection insurance. Whilst some consumers were satisfied with their policies, the vast majority did not fully understand what protection they had and were often actively mis-sold a policy that could never be of benefit to them.
There are some fundamental flaws present within the payment protection insurance industry and they do need to be thoroughly examined with a view to improving the system for the good of all consumers involved.
Although there have been improvements since the Financial Services Authority began to challenge the policies formulated by lenders, as well as their sales methods, there is still a long way to go before every individual gets adequate protection and a fair deal.
The ethical British Insurance is just one of the providers of standalone payment protection insurance that does put the consumer first. Specialist providers oppose bank and lender selling practices and actively strive to do what is best for the consumer time and time again by offering transparent policy wordings and low cost premiums.
