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In this section of our website you'll find a collection of online documents, reference materials and links – giving more background to our work on complaints involving payment protection insurance (PPI).

This section may be of particular interest to businesses and consumer advisers.

no appeal by banks on PPI legal challenge

Following the High Court judgment – endorsing the ombudsman's and the FSA's approach on the way payment protection insurance (PPI) complaints are handled – the British Bankers Association (BBA) confirmed on 9 May 2011 that it will not be appealing against the ruling.

Responding to this news, Natalie Ceeney, chief ombudsman, said:

It's very good news that the banks will not be appealing the High Court's clear-cut judgment, which endorsed the ombudsman's and the FSA's approach to PPI complaints. We are pleased that banks will now be dealing with their customers' complaints.

Consumers should come to us at the ombudsman if they're unsure about what to do next.

Meanwhile we will be working with the banks, over the coming weeks, to ensure that consumers' complaints are dealt with fairly and promptly.

our consumer factsheet on ...

payment protection insurance

our factsheet for consumers, looking at the issues that most frequently crop up in disputes about payment protection insurance (PPI)

standard documents for PPI complaints

designed to encourage more efficient, co-ordinated and consistent handling of PPI complaints across the financial services industry

• consumer questionnaire
  for consumers bringing a PPI complaint (either to a business or to the ombudsman service)
• business response form
  to be completed by businesses when a complaint is referred to the ombudsman service
• practical guide to the consumer questionnaire and business response form

case studies and ombudsman decisions

• a range of recent case studies highlight our approach, and the issues we consider, when assessing complaints about the sale of payment protection insurance (PPI)
• a selection of ombudsman decisions on PPI complaints also help show our approach:
  – Mr and Mrs B's case, Mr A's case and Mrs C's case involve single-premium PPI policies sold with secured and unsecured personal loans
  – Mr D's case and Mr E's case involve PPI policies sold with a credit card
• more PPI case studies in issue 71 of ombudsman news

the ombudsman service's approach

• an overview of the ombudsman's approach to some of the common issues raised in disputes about payment protection insurance (PPI)
• a letter to claims-management companies and a letter to financial businesses clarifying operational issues in relation to handling PPI complaints

annual update on complaints to the ombudsman about PPI

statistics from our 2009/2010 annual review showing the number of complaints we have received year on year, and an overview of the types of issues involved

regulatory action by the FSA

following the ombudsman's formal referral to the Financial Services Authority (FSA) of concerns about the handling of consumer complaints involving PPI:

• the FSA confirmed (in August 2010) a package of measures – to ensure consumers are better treated when buying PPI or complaining about it
• the FSA introduced (in May 2010) a temporary rule – to give people with recent payment protection insurance (PPI) complaints more time to refer cases to the ombudsman service
• the FSA confirmed that, during the legal challenge brought by the British Bankers Association, consumers could still complain about a PPI policy direct to the business involved
• the FSA issued a reminder to firms that they were still expected to carry out a full initial review of all PPI complaints received – despite the legal challenge

FSA enforcement action

enforcement action taken by the FSA against firms for poor PPI selling-practices includes:

• the £770,000 fine on Swinton Group plc for serious failings in their "advised" sales of single-premium PPI FSA's Final Notice opens in PDF format
• the £721,000 fine incurred by Egg Banking plc (Egg) for failings in its phone-sales of credit-card PPI FSA's Final Notice opens in PDF format
• the £7 million fine on Alliance & Leicester for serious failings in its phone-sales of PPI sold with personal loans FSA's Final Notice opens in PDF format

information for businesses on how we handle cases

frequently-asked questions (FAQs) on a range of topics from the role of third party complaint-handlers to whether complaints should be treated as legal pleadings

This is part of our online technical resource which sets out our general approach to complaints about a wide range of financial products and issues. We would like your feedback on how helpful you found it. Please also use the feedback form below to tell us about anything you think we could clarify or explain better.