The Central Bank has reported that the review of the misselling of Payment Protection Insurance is now complete – and refunds of €67.4 Million have been given back to 77,000 customers. That is an average refund of €875 per policy.
There are still 6000 customers who are due a refund – but they have not yet responded to letters from the banks. That means there is potentially €5.2 Million of refunds going unclaimed. Could that unclaimed money belong to you? Check your post and reply to the bank if you have had an offer of a refund.
Back in October 2013 we estimated that at least €50 Million would need be refunded – based on the PPI figures released by the Central Bank at that time.
Overall it was found that 22% of all PPI policies sold by the institutions under review since July 2007 were mis-sold. The policies with the highest rate of misselling were those sold with mortgages – 54% of those PPI premiums have been refunded. (About 17000 policies)
PPI on car loans also had a high rate of misselling – with about 52% getting refunds. (ABout 10,000 policies)
The review also resulted in 15% of all PPI premiums on personal loans being refunded. (About 32,000 policies)
There were 85,403 Payment protection Insurance policies sold with credit cards that came under the review. Of those – about 22% were not sold correctly and were refunded (18700 policies).
The review of PPI policies was carried out by the banks themselves – (overseen by “independent third parties” ) and monitored by the Central Bank. Some people might see that as strange – asking the offenders to check their own offences.
As far as we are aware there have not yet been any penalties or fines applied by the regulator to any of the institutions involved.
As we mentioned in our article on PPI Refunds in Ireland – the review only covers PPI policies sold since July 2007. It is likely that misselling was also widespread before that date – but what can consumers do about it?
The Central Bank says that consumers should make a complaint to their bank if they believe PPI was missold to them prior to July 2007.
Also – the outcome of the Review does not stop consumers from making a complaint about their PPI sale and does not remove consumers’ rights to complain to the Financial Services Ombudsman.
Find out more about PPI Refund Complaints Here