Now we know that the idea of a blog is to give you fresh, new information that surprises and enriches your life, but today’s blog post is about something you could see coming a mile off. The number of PPI claims and complaints made to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) is set to rise above last years total after 13, 520 complaints were recieved in the first quarter of 2010/11 alone.

According to the figures released by the Ombudsman, 34% of all complaints made in April, May and June where for mis-sold PPI and if the level of total complaints continues across all quarters, the FOS is to receive around 54,000 throughout the year, a 10% rise on last year’s total. Speaking about the figures, an Ombudsman representative said: “This should make it easier for everyone to see the numbers and trends as they emerge throughout the year rather than only seeing the figures annually, after the financial year has ended.”

As if the smell of countless PPI claims was just too bad to bear Lloyds has thrown PPI out of it’s pantry and into the trash bin of financial products. Lloyds have withdrawn its Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) products across all brands and channels, meaning policies will no longer be sold to new customers of Lloyds TSB, Halifax, Bank of Scotland, Cheltenham & Gloucester and Black Horse.

Existing policy holders are unaffected by the change and instead of flogging new policies, customers will instead be given a pamphlet about PPI produced by the British Banking Association (BBA). A spokesperson for Lloyds said: “This move reflects the uncertainty around the regulation of PPI sales and processes. The Group believes further changes in regulation will make it uneconomic to continue to offer these products in their current form.”

The Financial Services Authority and the Financial Ombudsman Service have had their fair share of PPI claims to deal with over the last 12 months and we’ve written about it at length. But we haven’t touched on the actual monetary refunds and compensation payments and how they are made.

This side of a successful claim is handled by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) which is a big ol’ pot of money put together by all the banks, lenders and insurers to cover any ’sub-standard dealings with customers’, shall we say. Last financial year, it paid out £204 million to over 21,000 claimants with over two-thirds of the cash going to victims of mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance. This just goes to show that the money is there for you to claim and there’s never been a better time to get started.

Lord Turner, the chairman of the Financial Services Authority (FSA), spoke yesterday about strong plans to ban self-certification mortgages. In doing so, he revealed research showing that 46% of households have no money left after paying their mortgages and living costs and have no Mortgage Protection Cover to help them out. The plans set out a structure where banks will have to conduct an ‘affordability test’ on every mortgage they sell.

In advising the banks, Turner said that income verification should be required in every case and that the new proposals should help cut the high levels of fraud in the mortgage market. There will be no ban on high loan-to-value mortgages, or controversial 100% mortgages.

If you’re thinking about making PPI claims (remember you could have more than one mis-sold policy) then now is the time to do it. Not only because the sooner you start the sooner you get a payout but also because there are roughly 1000 complaints a week about PPI being made to the Ombudsman every day and the queue for a response is getting longer.

Have a read of this article in todays Daily Mail, it’s got a full breakdown of mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance including individual stories of claimant journeys to a payout. Very interesting and worth a read…

The mis-selling of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) has had a profound effect on the industry, the regulators and most of all on us, financial consumers. But what is going to stop mis-sold PPI from rearing it’s ugly head again? Well, new regulations state that from October PPI cannot be sold alongside a credit agreement and lenders must wait seven days to contact a customer about the insurance product. The idea behind this is to encourage people to look around for the best product for their needs and to stop lenders shoe-horning uncompetitive cover in at the point of sale.

As well as regulatory change, there has been a shift in public perception of the product, people are more aware of it than ever before and this alone may well prevent suprise PPI costs being found on statements. But despite these preventitive steps, possibly one of the best of all is being ignored – the introduction of professional requirements for advisers selling protection. The FSA is currently looking into the costs and benefits of requiring advisers of term assurance, critical illness cover (CIC) and income protection (IP) to attain qualifications, yet they have excluded PPI from the consultation. Maybe it’s replacement in 2012 will think differently.

Did you know that today is the last day that the old £20 not will be accepted in shops and swapped in banks, building societies and post offices? If you have any of the notes featuring the composer Elgar, you’ll need to either buy something with them or pop into your local branch and they’ll give you a nice shiney replacement.

The ‘new’ £20 note features a picture of economist Adam Smith and was introduced in 2007 as part of the Bank of England’s fight against counterfeiting. Despite the fact that the Elgar note will be about as useful as a snotty tissue a the till, there are formal penalties in place for any bank that continues to issue use Elgar notes in their cash machines – if you do get one and they won’t change it, you have to send to the Bank of England.

The Financial Services Consumer Panel has come out and voiced its concerns regarding the Coalition Government proposals to reform the financial regulatory system.

The plans, discussed earlier in the week, involve the winding down of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and its eventual replacement in 2012 by a three-body regulator.

But speaking at the FSA’s annual meeting, Adam Phillips, chair of the Consumer Panel, said: “the new system of regulation must learn from the successes and failures of the FSA and commit itself to implementing changes that will protect consumers”.

Ultimately, despite the closing of doors and bolting of horses, the FSA has had a strong year which has seen many organisations punished for infractions. Mr Phillips went on to say: “We hope that the decision to reform the regulatory structure will not lead to the deferment of changes which will bring significant benefits to consumers.” Amen to that.

They may be going down but they’re going down fighting as the Financial Services Authority (FSA) issues two more hefty fines to rule breaking companies. Photo booth company, Photo-Me, was fined £500,000 for creating a false market for its shares and money broker Vantage was fined £700,000 for allowing an individual too much influence over the company.

These large penalties come in the same week that the coalition Government announced the end of the FSA and it’s replacement in 2012. Maybe the FSA is trying to prove it can regulate, but more likely it’s just carrying on with business in a year that’s seen record levels of fines levied by the watchdog. In total £54.5 million has been handed out  in fines with much of that as a result of mis-sold PPI and financial mis-selling in general.

The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has shifted more resources to handle the increased loads of mis sold PPI claims and complaints being made. Around 135 a day were made last last financial year, more than any other 12 month period and the number shows no sign of falling.

The reason for the increase in claim numbers has been put down to the ever increasing number of claim handling companies as well as the rise in Press coverage of the mis-selling scandal. In addition increasing resources the FOS have also released details of eight cases that were recently brought infront of them in an attempt to provide more information to claimants.