Complaints soar as banks fail PPI victims

Banks such as Lloyds still dismiss valid claims (Getty Images)

Just when you thought the banks were trying to put the PPI mis-selling scandal behind them, it turns out they're still trying to escape being straight with their customers.

The latest complaint figures from the Financial Services Ombudsman published this week revealed some sorry statistics: some 266,228 claims for PPI mis-selling were referred to the service in the first six months of the year.

That was a 26 per cent increase on the previous six months. And, significantly, eight out of 10 of these are upheld by the ombudsman.

In other words the banks, led by the giant Lloyds Banking Group, are still dismissing tens of thousands of valid claims in the hope, presumably, that victims will give up rather than go through the further chore of taking their case to the ombudsman.

Natalie Ceeney, chief ombudsman, said: “Disappointingly we are still seeing cases where businesses are not following our long-standing approach to PPI, resulting in long waits and unnecessary delays for consumers.”

Richard Lloyd, the Which? executive director, added: “The shockingly high uphold rates on PPI claims exposes just how shoddy the complaints handling is at some of the major high street banks.

“Despite their claims, banks are failing to clean up their act. The Financial Conduct Authority must ensure all banks handle complaints to a much higher standard, so that it's easier for people with legitimate claims to get back what they're rightly owed.”