British financial services firm Barclays has again violated the Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) market investigation order 2011, and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is not pleased.
Taking action against Barclays, the CMA has issued legal directions requiring the bank to have appropriate systems and procedures in place to ensure it doesn’t fail to send annual reminders to PPI customers a third time. As part of the PPI order, which was brought about by a 2011 probe by the Competition Commission, customers should receive a yearly statement from their provider setting out not only the PPI cost but also their right to cancel.
It turns out that Barclays, between October 2016 and October 2017, was not able to remind 2,265 Littlewoods credit card PPI customers due to a technical problem in transferring them to its computer system. Prior to this repeat violation, nearly 10,000 PPI customers of Barclays weren’t provided with the required reminders.
According to the CMA, Barclays has written to all affected customers following the latest breach.
“The annual reminder is an important measure so customers know they still have a PPI policy and how much it is costing them each year, as well as their right to cancel or switch,” explained CMA’s Adam Land, senior director of remedies, business and financial analysis.
“This is Barclays’ second breach of the PPI order,” he noted. “As a result, we are issuing legal directions which can be enforced by a court, to ensure they comply with the order. We now require assurances from Barclays they have now put adequate systems in place to prevent a similar breach from occurring again.”
Currently the CMA does not have the power to impose financial penalties for such breaches.
