FCA fines CT Capital £2.4m for PPI failings

"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."

The FCA found that CT Capital - the parent company of a group of lenders and loan brokers - failed to put in place complaint handling processes to deal with PPI complaints appropriately, which resulted in customers missing out on redress payments.

The regulator said that the effect on individual customers was "potentially significant" as the average redress payment made in respect of a fully upheld complaint during the period was £5,959.

Between 2005 and 2008, the group had sold 31,591 regulated PPI policies, receiving approximately £63 million net in commission as a result.

The investigation found that CT Capital operated "flawed policies", including failing to put in place adequate systems for assessing its PPI complaint handling processes and for monitoring the fairness of customer outcomes.

In particular, the FCA said CT failed to analyse decisions of the Financial Ombudsman Service or to use them to inform its ongoing complaint handling processes.

Following feedback from the FCA in 2013, CT Capital undertook a substantial remediation exercise which involved developing a revised PPI complaint handling process and reviewing approximately 4,800 complaints which had been rejected or in respect of which full redress had not been paid. By January 2016, CT Capital had paid approximately £74 million (including interest) in redress arising from PPI complaints.

Mark Steward, director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: “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.

“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. We will continue to monitor how firms are dealing with complaints and will not hesitate to take action where we see firms not complying with their obligations.”