Fines Are Not Enough

Loancheck believes fines are not enough and the FSA should do more

Commenting on the FSA fining Liverpool Victoria Banking Services (LVBS) £840,000 for "serious failings" in the sale of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI), John Whittaker, chief executive, LoanCheck Foundation, said: “Even though we at the LoanCheck Foundation are delighted that the FSA is taking a tough stance on firms giving wrongful advice to consumers in relation to Payment Protection Insurance - time and time again, we are witnessing organisations like LVBS behaving illegally in the sub prime lending arena.

“As a social enterprise that is campaigning on behalf of the consumer, I would like to know what the FSA is doing to stop this happening and furthermore what recompense the client has for a product that is potentially wrong for them. Token fines will make no difference to these huge financial institutions. For organisations like LVBS this fine is a drop in the ocean.”

The fine comes at a time when the Competition Commission has found that people buying Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) are being over charged by £1.4 billion a year.

The Competition Commission has been investigating PPI after being asked to do so by the Office of Fair Trading. It in turn was responding to a "super-complaint" by Which? lodged in September 2005.