Capitalise on payment protection insurance row, urges British Insurance
FINANCIAL ADVISER - 15TH MARCH 2007
IFAs will benefit from escalating payment protection insurance claims and consumers complaining about high street lenders, according to British Insurance.
Simon Burgess, managing director of British Insurance, said the scale of payment protection insurance mis-selling would dwarf endowments. He said: "The general consensus is that, the way it’s running at the moment, this will be five times as big as the endowment scandal."
The market is dominated by Barclays, Halifax, NatWest, Lloyds TSB and HSBC.
According to Mr Burgess, the problem will bolster the reputation of IFAs, even if they have sold payment protection insurance, because they will have done the correct checks.
He also said that the issue gave advisers an excuse to contact clients to suggest they make a claim which will help build customer relations. Any successful claims could also need investing.
An Office of Fair Trading investigation found that sales staff of major lenders had told borrowers that cover was mandatory and, in some cases, included the costs in loan quotes.
The OFT has referred their findings to the Competition Commission but many consumers have already made complaints to the FOS.
