FSA launches online PPI comparison tables

by Gill Montia

Story link: FSA launches online PPI comparison tables

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has launched a new set of tables to help consumers who are looking for Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) to compare policies and identify which meet their needs.

PPI has been at the centre of years of controversy, with consumer group Which? and the Citizens’ Advice Bureau campaigning for more competition in the sector.

The insurance is designed to meet payments on mortgages, credit cards and other personal debt if the policyholder is unable to work due to poor health, or loses his or her employment.

The sector has been riddled with incidents of mis-selling and consumers have complained of feeling obliged to take out the PPI offered by lenders in order to secure their loans.

The FSA wants people to understand that PPI is almost always optional and to be clear about the cover provided by a particular policy.

The PPI tables are available on the FSA website and will be updated daily.

They display details of single and regular premium policies, outlining exclusions and explaining how pre-existing conditions are taken into account.

Earlier this month the Competition Commission estimated that insurers have been overcharging their PPI customers by £1.4 billion a year.

In a working paper published earlier this year, the Commission concluded that personal loans business had been suffering from declining profits in recent years to the point where in 2006, it appeared to have been loss making before taking into account income from PPI.