Loan insurance still dominates UK financial complaints
LONDON (Reuters) - Payment protection insurance (PPI) remains the most complained about financial product in Britain, forcing firms to pay more than a billion pounds in compensation in the first half of 2017, the Financial Conduct Authority said on Monday.
PPI is Britain's costliest financial scandal with complaints increasing by 24 percent to 1.1 million in the first six months of this year, up from 899,000 in the second half of 2016.
The watchdog launched a publicity campaign in August featuring an animatronic head of actor Arnold Schwarzenegger to urge people to make compensation claims for mis-sold PPI by an August 2019 deadline.
Total complaints against financial services firms totalled 3.32 million, up from 3.04 million.
Financial businesses have had to report complaints in a new way since June last year, which has increased the number reported, the FCA said in a statement.
Redress to consumers totalled 1.99 billion pounds in the first half of 2017, 82 percent of which was for mis-sold PPI. The total paid out for PPI complaints is heading towards the 30 billion pound mark.
(Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by David Goodman)
