Barclays breach leads to apology and refund for PPI customers
Barclays has sent out apology letters and missing annual statements to around 10,000 PPI customers, following a breach of a CMA order.
The apology letters, sent out to all affected customers, explained the error and offered to refund payment protection insurance (PPI) premiums paid out since the date of the first missing statement – as well as 8% interest – to those who cancel their policy as a result.
One of the measures introduced in the 2011 order that followed the Competition Commission’s (CC) investigation into PPI was that all customers would receive an annual statement from their provider setting out the cost of PPI and including a reminder of their right to cancel.
A compliance report by Barclays in April 2015 revealed that 52 PPI credit card customers had not received their annual statement.
Further investigation into the issue revealed that, over the last 3 annual statement periods, a total of 9,404 credit card PPI customers had not received their statements. Additionally 740 customers on a specific mortgage PPI scheme had not received annual statements since the CC order came into force in 2012.
The CMA has sent a letter to Barclays about this breach of the order, requiring it to provide additional reporting on its controls to ensure that all such customers receive their statements in future.
Adam Land, the CMA’s Senior Director of Remedies, Business and Financial Analysis, said:
The annual statement was an important measure resulting from the market investigation which ensures customers know they have a PPI policy, how much they are spending on it and reminds them of their right to cancel or switch.
Barclays has now taken the necessary steps to alert and recompense affected customers - as well as to ensure that there is no repeat in future. We trust that the extra reporting requirements we’ve put in place will confirm this.
Notes for editors
- The CMA is the UK’s primary competition and consumer authority. It is an independent non-ministerial government department with responsibility for carrying out investigations into mergers, markets and the regulated industries and enforcing competition and consumer law.
- When the CMA came into being in April 2014, it assumed the responsibility for monitoring and enforcing orders and undertakings introduced by its predecessor organisations, the CC and the Office of Fair Trading.
- The Payment Protection Market Investigation Order 2011.
- The CMA has duties relating to the monitoring of an enforcement order and rights to enforce an order under sections 162 and 167 respectively of the Enterprise Act 2002. Where a party does not comply with an enforcement order, the CMA may apply to the court to seek an appropriate remedy. The CMA does not have a power to impose financial penalties for non-compliance. The Act also gives rights to persons who sustain loss or damage to enforce the order directly. Persons who sustain loss or damage as a result of the breach of a duty owed to them under the order may take legal proceedings to enforce the obligations owed to them under the order.
- For more information on the CMA see our homepage or follow us on Twitter @CMAgovuk, Flickr and LinkedIn.
- Enquiries should be directed to Rory Taylor (rory.taylor@cma.gsi.gov.uk, 020 3738 6798).