Payment Protection Insurance Review
Back in October 2012 – seven Irish financial institutions were instructed by the Central Bank to undertake a review of all their PPI sales made since July 2007.
Only 6 companies were named – they were Bank of Ireland, Allied Irish Bank, EBS, GE Money, Ulster Bank and Permanent TSB.
All of the firms should have by now at least written to all customers that could be affected by the review.
PTSB say they expect to have reviewed all cases by “mid 2013” while Ulster bank say on their website that they expect to complete the review by September 2013. AIB (who now own EBS) said in Oct 2012 that it could take “at least a year” and BOI didn’t give any timescale as far as we can see.
Minister for Finance (Michael Noonan) in a written Dail reply on 12th Feb 2013 could not give any definite information about the PPI mis-selling review.
He said that he had “been advised by the Central Bank that the investigations into the incorrect selling of payment protection insurance to consumers are still on-going.” and “The Central Bank has indicated to me that, at this stage, it is not possible, to estimate the time frame for completion of the reviews, how many consumers are likely to be affected or the total amount of re-imbursements.”
The Regulator (Central Bank) is telling consumers to wait and see what happens with the review – but we say can the banks really be trusted to uncover all of their own errors or bad practices?
The PPI reviews are to be overlooked by an independent third party – but these could be the same firms who were “overlooking” the meltdown of the banks and signed off audits.
Make a Complaint
Don’t wait for the results of the PPI review if you think you were mis-sold PPI. … Were You Missold PPI?
Even if your PPI is part of the review it will do no harm to make a formal complaint if you think it was missold to you . The bank’s review might conclude that it was not missold – but the Financial Ombudsman might uphold your complaint and award compensation.
We have seen over and over again that the banks really can’t be trusted – so don’t sit back and wait for them.
There is a stupid 6 year time limit in place if you want to make any complaint to the Financial Services Ombudsman. This limit is 6 years from the date the PPI was sold to you – so the longer you wait – the bigger chance you have of any future complaint being rejected on the grounds of it being over 6 years .
If you think you were incorrectly sold PPI more than 6 years ago: – The Financial Services Ombudsman currently won’t investigate your complaint and it won’t be part of the review.
You should still make a formal complaint to the bank that sold you the PPI. If you are not happy with their response – and you want to take it further – you can contact your solicitor or a PPI claims management company. (This is also the advice of the National Consumer Agency)
More Information about PPI Claims in Ireland