article_snippet.sent: Rogue staff deleted records and tampered with evidence to make it look like the customer was never sold PPI, or Rogue staff lied about not being able to trace documents.
article_snippet.sent: According to the City watchdog, the worst of the cover-up – which lasted from May 2012 to June 2013 – resulted in up to 42,200 PPI complaints being rejected unfairly and up to 50,900 customers receiving inadequate compensation.
article_snippet.sent: In one case a married couple were cheated out of a £5,100 pay-out because the lender lied to the Financial Ombudsman that the lender had not been able to trace records of a married couple having bought PPI.
article_snippet.sent: The FCA said National Australia Bank had an ‘inappropriate policy’ for National Australia Bank complaints handling in 2011– instructing staff not to search for PPI complaints relating to loans and mortgages that had been repaid more than seven years prior to the complaint.
article_snippet.sent: This resulted in some customers being short-changed on compensation pay-outs, or missing out entirely.
article_snippet.sent: But the wrongdoing escalated in May 2012 when a team of Staff started to provide false information to the Financial Ombudsman when a team of staff was investigating complaints on old PPI policies.
article_snippet.sent: This included deleting any reference to PPI on documents related to a customer.
article_snippet.sent: Staff also tampered with computer records to make it look like that documentation had been destroyed.
article_snippet.sent: The policies were meant to protect customers with loans who lost customers jobs or became too sick to work.
article_snippet.sent: High street lenders – which made huge profits from selling PPIs – have been forced to set aside £24billion to compensate customers.
article_snippet.sent: The cost of PPI mis-selling is expected to spiral as complaints continue to flood in.
article_snippet.sent: The Financial Ombusdman continues to be swamped by 4,000 complaints a week, but banks complain that claims management firms – which bombard customers with nuisance text messages and phone calls – are driving many people to make bogus PPI complaints.