The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has slapped CT Capital with a £2.36million penalty for “serious failings” in handling complaints related to payment protection insurance (PPI).
The regulator said CT Capital failed to set up complaint handling processes to deal appropriately with 6,669 PPI complaints between May 2011 and November 2013.This resulted in customers missing out on compensation that they were entitled to.
The effect of CT Capital’s failures on individual consumers was potentially significant, the FCA said, since the average compensation was £5,959.
“Failing to handle complaints appropriately means that firms risk treating customers unfairly for a second time and it’s important that firms get this right,” said Mark Steward, FCA director of enforcement and market oversight.
“We have taken action against firms on numerous occasions and there’s no excuse for firms continuing to get it wrong. We remain determined to ensure that firms put right the harm caused by PPI mis-selling and regain the trust of the public,” he added.
CT Capital, the parent company of a group of lenders and loan brokers, sold 31,600 policies between 2005 and 2008, earning about £63m in commissions.
The FCA said the company knew that specific provisions governing the handling of PPI complaints have been enforced since December 2010. However, it still failed to put in place processes designed to follow the provisions until November 2011.
CT Capital operated flawed policies even after that time, the watchdog said, and continued to have inappropriate rules in relation to rejecting complaints until January 2013.
In that year, CT Capital revised its PPI complaint handling process and reviewed about 4,800 rejected or unpaid complaints. By January 2016, the company had paid about £74m in compensation to customers.
