What a bunch of Bankers! UK Banks challenge PPI ruling
Feelings are running high this morning in the Payment Protection Market and the consumer pressure groups with news that Barclays and Lloyds TSB are challenging the Competition Commission's ruling to ban the sale of Payment Protection Insurance at the time of sale of a loan mortgage or credit.
Insurance Blogger thinks this is outrageous after years of expenditure on the investigations by the FSA and Competition Commission and others, and the subsequent fines for misselling, that any institution, let alone a largely Government owned institution Lloyds Bank, should have the right to challenge any such decision!
Payment protection insurance lobbyist Sara-Ann Burgess from
specialist payment protection insurance company, Burgesses confirms our viewpoint. She said "
These institutions are without morals and intent on putting profit ahead of consumers' interests."
"This latest move is a bid by the banks to continue making billions of pounds in profits in order to prop up other failing business areas.
"We all know PPI mis-selling is rife amongst High Street lenders and their resultant profits are obscene. These delaying tactics, lodged to stop the ban going ahead in October 2010, only serve to prove just how shameless these firms are and the extent they will go to protect their 'cash cows'."
The UK Protection Insurance sector takes over £5 billion in premiums every year and around 90% of the premiums goes in profit to Banks and Building Societies.
In 2006, the Competition Commission reported the 12 largest distributors made profits of GBP1.4bn - before the recession kicked in and demand for unemployment insurance protection and income protection insurance policies grew.
After a lengthy investigation into anti-competitive practices, the Commission announced in January a series of measures to lower prices and widen choice in the PPI sector.
These included:
axing single premium PPI and replacing with monthly payments.
a seven day ban on selling cover alongside credit.
a requirement to offer PPI separately to credit.
The Financial Ombudsman Service predicted some 30,000 payment protection insurance mis-selling complaints would be received by the end of March this year and confirmed the majority of them can be traced back to High Street lenders.
It upholds at least 90% of cases and in the case of one lender, 100%.Sara-Ann Burgess concludes: "How can you on the one hand say banks are working to restore confidence and then on the other have two major players challenging decisions in order to maintain gigantic market shares and prevent freedom of choice? Actions are certainly speaking louder than words. These lenders are damaging the financial well-being of consumers and will continue to do so. What's equally insulting is the fact that Lloyds is paid for by taxpayers and our money is being used to ensure we continue to be ripped off."
Insurance Blogger couldn't agree more! The banks created the current recession by the misselling of mortgages and piggybacked missold mortgage payment protection insurance, and now they are trying to retain their ill gotten share of a market that wouldn't exist if they had done their job properly in the first place.
BancAssurance is a French joke - Keep your noses out of Insurance - Bankers!
For those of you still in a job, we wholeheartedly recommend Burgesses
Unemployment InsuranceLabels: Banks, income protection, income protection insurance, lifestyle insurance, loan protection insurance, mortgage payment protection insurance, mortgage protection, mppi, PPI, unemployment insurance
Banks reduced to selling HOME INSURANCE - Tesco outguns them
Like many others in the UK I must have sat down and watched the Location Location Location Credit Crunch special wondering how much my house was worth - or not.
But did anyone notice the subliminal message throughout ' program sponsored by...' and all the Bank adverts in the commercial breaks selling - HOME INSURANCE
Well I suppose it had to expected, after all Banks couldn't sell us pensions in the pre crunch market, now they can't offer us
credit, loans, mortgages or plastic since they messed the market up between them and now, uh what's left, oh yeah lets sell them HOME INSURANCE.
You must have seen that pathetic annnoying ad from Nat West with those idiot bankers trying to sell products - Well sorry Nat West the UK public don't differentiate - Bankers are Bankers! Now the same prats are all fighting over home insurance.
Don't buy into it as in most cases you are better off going to the source rather than the super affiliate. Check the small print to see who underwrites the cover - bet it's not the bank!
The only exception to the rule is the best buy home insurance cover - which does vary by campaign and this month is without doubt Tesco.
So if you're looking for standard home insurance savings at the current time, look no further than TESCO HOME INSURANCE who have today slashed their rates by a massive 50% and offfer further online discounts. The cover underwritten by UK Insurance is in our opinion far wider and better than the bank offerings with features such as unlimited buildings sums insureds.
Today Tesco Personal Finance launch their latest offer on Home Insurance – Get 50% off your premium when you get a quote for Tesco Standard or Finest Home Insurance by 7th January 2009 and then buy that policy.
Offer applies to new customers in their first year only when you get a quote for Tesco Standard or Finest Home Insurance by 7th Jan 2009 and then buy that policy. Quotes are valid for 90 days. This offer Excludes Value and Buy to let Insurance.
Additional benefits of
Tesco Home Insurance:
Further 5% discount for Tesco Car Insurance customers
Clubcard customers get an even better price
We'll pay any switching fees up to £25 when you switch from your mortgage lender
All our calls are answered in our UK Call centres
24-hour emergency helpline
Home Repair network – all repairs are undertaken by vetted builders and all costs are paid directly to them with no fuss or hassle
Any work undertaken is guaranteed for 12 months
More price options available with Value cover offering basic essential cover and Finest cover offering inclusive benefits such as a Concierge service and free ID Fraud assistance
Labels: Banks, Home Insurance, tesco home insurance
Uk government moves to protect bank deposits
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has increased the compensation limit for bank deposits from £35,000 up to a total of £50,000 for each customer's claim.
This increase applies from midnight Monday 6th October 2008.
Customers with joint accounts will be eligible to claim up to £100,000.
Whether this will be enough to stop funds flowing overseas remains to be seen.
Both Ireland and Greece have unilaterally declared to protect all depositers funds.
This move has caused great uncertainty within EU markets and at the weekend German Chanceller Angela Merck suggestede that German banks may take the same action.
We await further moves from Gordon Brown and Mr A Darling.
The situation could be worsened further this week as the Bank of England are erxpected to cut Interest Rates by up to 1% to deal with the ongoing banking and insurance credit crunch crisis.
Labels: Bank of England, Banks, credit crunch
Scottish Parliament to rescue Banks?
Its refreshing to see that the unloved Republicans have stuck to their guns and said no to intervention - even it it means a crash and the collapse of their economy and all its global fallout.
Why? Because in the UK the opposite situation exists where an underlying fundamental ideology of nationalisation to the rescue still exists!
Or does it?
I've just heard A Darling say 'we'll do whatever it takes to keep the economy stable'
Maybe, the Yanks are right - You cannot underwrite a House of Cards Institutional collapse - especially if your not getting the profit in the good times.
Obviously the UK Government thinks you can!
When the Japanese banking system collapsed in 1990 the only solution was the introduction of ZIRP - Zero Interest Rate lending from the State to the Banks in order to kick start the circular liquidity flows. It took ten years to recover.
Maybe there'll be a honeymoon periods in a month or so after Obama wins the US election handsdown.
It might even help Mr Browns UK image, after all the Conservatives here (the republican equivalents) are marching around their annual conference here like headless chickens, triumphing the rise of New Conservatism and already talking about power.
Why the glum faces then?
These same people are being shot by both sides. The collapse of their beautified banking system and the value of their shares free falling, their system falling into the hands of the enemy (the current Government) has rather taken the shine of the promised election victory to come!
Well whoever wins it has just won a bucket of ****
Rumours are abounding that Lloyds board are trying to renegotiate the takeover of Halifax Bank of Scotland - its sending waves around the industry.
Well Mr A Darling it looks like you may have your first bank to nationalise....
It will probably be closely followed by Royal Bank of Scotland!
Hang on! - Whose in Charge? - a certain Scot Mr G Brown
Maybe he's planning to hand the Scottish banks over to the Scottish Parliament to run
Now there's a thought - Alex Salmon in charge of 2 of the UK's largest financial and insurance comglomerates!
Labels: Banks, credit crunch, HBOS, Insurance, RBS bank, scotland
Bradford & Bingley Nationalised
Hurrah !
Now we the taxpayers rescue another failed business -
Bradford and Bingley - and as a country are now the proud sponsors of Bradford City FC (as well as Newcastle Utd!).
Bradford and Bingley (aka The Government) also sponsor the Bradford Bulls Foundation, Yorkshire County Cricket Club Indoor Cricket Centre and Bradford and Bingley RFC incidently.
Bradford and Bingley were one of the major culprits in the creation of the Credit Crunch with their ridiculous overloading of buy to let mortgages and self certified mortgages accounting for over 80% of their business, and directly accounting for the outrageous growth in house prices. It was bound to fail and City Analysts were predicting months ago that their shares were worth nothing -much to the annoyance of the banking sector!
It Stinks - these bad businessmen are allowed to create a house of cards in the UK housing market and walk away from it leaving us the taxpayers to pick up the pieces - whatever happened to the free market? And where were the
FSA in all this?
On an Insurance front their book of business is relatively small in the larger scheme of things with a lot of home insurance particularly
landlord insurance cover and mortgage protection insurance policies sold on the back mortgages.
Our advice to anyone holding these policies is to switch today. This applies particulary
mortgage payment protection which is a monthly policy and is easy to cancel and set up elsewhere. With lenders charging more than five times the rates for this type of insurance than the independent sector - you would be wise to
switch mortgage insurance today
Labels: Banks, bradford and bingley, Bradford Football, landlord insurance, mortgage, nationalisation, unemployment insurance
