Barclays rapped by competition watchdog after second PPI breach

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) says that between October 2016 and October 2017, Barclays failed to send reminders to 2,265 Littlewoods credit card customers, who had payment protection insurance (PPI) policies.

Following that breach, Barclays wrote to all affected customers, providing a reminder of their right to cancel the policy and the offer of a refund. From this communication, it has so far paid out almost £336,000 in refunds to customers.

Following an investigation into PPI by the Competition Commission in 2011, one of the measures introduced in was that customers should receive an annual reminder from their provider setting out clearly how much they had paid for their PPI, and their right to cancel the policy.

This is not the first time Barclays has breached the order - it reported several substantive breaches to the CMA in 2015 for not providing annual reminders to almost 10,000 PPI customers.

The CMA says it has now issued 'legal directions' to Barclays to put appropriate systems and procedures in place to prevent a similar incident from happening again in the future.

What does the CMA say?

Adam Land, the CMA's senior director of remedies, business and financial analysis, said: "The annual reminder is an important measure so customers know they still have a PPI policy and how much it is costing them each year, as well as their right to cancel or switch.

"This is Barclays' second breach of the PPI order. As a result, we are issuing legal directions which can be enforced by a court, to ensure they comply with the order.

"We now require assurances from Barclays they have now put adequate systems in place to prevent a similar breach from occurring again."

What does Barclays say?

A Barclays spokesperson said: “Between October 2016 and October 2017 a small number of PPI customers were not sent the Annual Review statements which they were entitled to receive. This issue has now been resolved and all customers have received their missing statements.

"We have written to all affected customers to apologise unreservedly and to outline how we will recompense them where they would have otherwise cancelled their policy.

"We take this matter extremely seriously and have conducted an internal investigation to ensure all stringent controls and policies continue to be upheld."

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