FSA fines Capital One for improper selling of PPI and unfair treatment of customers

LONDON - The UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) has fined Capital One Bank £175,000 for failing to have adequate systems and controls for selling Payment Protection Insurance (PPI), and for failing to treat its customers fairly.

Capital One's primary business is providing credit cards, loans and savings accounts, but it also sells PPI on a non-advised basis to its customers during the card application process or via follow-up calls. The FSA investigation focused purely on credit card PPI sales and found that from January 2005 to April 2006, Capital One failed to ensure that 50,000 customers received important information about the policy including all exclusions, although they did receive a policy summary. Affected customers were unable to check what they were covered for or whether the policy was right for them.

Capital One has carried out a full remedial programme to address the systems and controls issues, one part of which ensured that those customers who did not receive the policy document were compensated. The cost of this part, including potential premium refunds and settled claims, is estimated at around £3.0 million, of which £1.1 million related to customers after general insurance regulation started in January 2005.