PPI mis-selling victims who’ve submitted claims for cash may not get a response until summer 2020 due to a deluge of last-minute complaints.
The financial regulator has warned that banks were inundated with complaints in the lead-up to a claims deadline on August 29.
This surge means firms may now “not be able to meet their normal complaint handling times,” according to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Some claimants might not hear back until 2020 despite banks having “large operations” in place to deal with gripes, it added.
Financial firms usually have up to eight weeks to respond to complaints such as PPI claims.
If they fail to do so, customers can escalate their case to the free Financial Ombudsman Service.
The FCA says claimants should still expect banks to be in touch within the eight-week time frame, but this does not mean complaints have to be redressed in this period.
There is no indication if banks will face fines for the delays.
Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, NatWest, and Royal Bank of Scotland wouldn’t tell The Sun what the scale of the hold-ups were.
A HSBC spokesperson added that it’s “working hard to resolve every case as quickly as possible” and is ensuring customers are kept updated where their complaint is not resolved within eight weeks.
A spokesperson for UK Finance, which represents the banking industry, said: “The industry received unprecedented volumes of PPI enquiries and complaints leading up to the August 29 deadline, which has put significant pressure on complaint handling timescales.
“UK Finance is pleased that the Financial Conduct Authority acknowledges these unexpected pressures and has laid out its expectations for ongoing complaints handling, which will allow sufficient time for all complaints received to be resolved accurately and consistently.”
You can also complain to the Ombudsman up to six months after receiving a business’ answer.
A spokesperson from the Financial Ombudsman Service added: “A business should tell you when it expects to be able to give you an answer to your complaint.
“And that if you disagree with its response you will still be able to refer your complaint to us.”
New data from the FCA shows 540,000 PPI complaints were made in the first half of this year as consumers rushed to beat the August 29 deadline.
PPI complaints made up half of all complaints to the FCA in the same period, continuing to be the country’s most complained about financial product.
More than 2million complaints have now been lodged as of July, while more than £35billion in redress was dished out to consumers between 2011 and August this year. Around 60million PPI policies were sold over the last phree decades.
It is now too late to make new complaints unless you can clearly show exceptional circumstances forced you to miss the deadline, rules which the Financial Ombudsman Service outlines on its website.
Claims don’t always run into delays though: we revealed how flying instructor Ian Stevenson got £9,000 back from a PPI policy he took out alongside his mortgage just a few days after he applied.
And earlier this year, former bookkeeper Brian Goody got a shock £18,000 PPI payout on loans he’d taken in the 1980s.
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