Finance

George Osborne has pledged to save families up to £470 a year by boosting competition and cutting red tape in areas such as banking, utilities and mobile phones.

The Financial Conduct Authority has today published its consultation paper on plans to bring in a 2018 deadline for PPI claims – and revealed that 18 firms which received the most PPI complaints will be asked to cough up £42 million to fund an ad campaign promoting the deadline.

Almost 4,000 borrowers are due a share of £1.7 million after CashEuroNet UK LLC, trading as QuickQuid and Pounds to Pocket, lent some customers more than they could afford to repay.

The financial watchdog says competition in the credit card market is working fairly well for most consumers, although it has expressed concerns about the scale of potentially problematic credit card debt and claimed more could be done to help struggling borrowers.

More than 147,000 borrowers are due a share of over £15.4 million after Dollar Financial UK (Dollar), trading as The Money Shop, Payday UK, Payday Express and Ladder Loans, lent many people more than they could afford to repay.

Banks must make it easier for customers to take charge of their accounts, including raising awareness of switching, the competition regulator has announced today.

Two million people who were flogged worthless card security insurance from Sentinel should watch for a claim form in the post, as letters begin to be sent today.

MoneySavingExpert.com and Which? have submitted a joint letter to the financial regulator expressing "serious concern" at media reports it's considering introducing a time bar on PPI complaints.