Financial Ombudsman Service

A record number of disputes regarding the mis-selling of payment protection insurance (PPI) will need to be resolved over the next year, as banks and insurers have subjected customers to "delays and inconvenience", a finance watchdog warned today.

Home repairs group HomeServe says it has halted telephone sales and will retrain nearly 500 call centre staff, after discovering possible mis-selling of its household emergency policies.

Lloyds TSB customers due a payment for mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI) have vented their fury at huge compensation delays, though they may be entitled to extra cash as a result.

Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) gripes boosted the number of complaints made to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) in the first half of 2011 by a massive 54%, compared to the amount of cases in the second half of 2010.

Compensation paid to victims of payment protection insurance mis-selling has soared since banks admitted defeat in their bid to block payouts.

Lloyds Banking Group has said "sorry" for flogging worthless payment protection insurance (PPI) policies and promised a catalogue of measures to provide compensation for victims, in yet another sign of capitulation by banks.

Barclays will pay in-full all of its customers' payment protection insurance (PPI) claims that were put on hold on or before 20 April.

Firms that charge fees for finding hard-up consumers a loan will have their activities curbed, after the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) found some pocket cash without carrying out the service.

Banks and other financial firms will be banned from trying to fob off complainants before they've made a final decision.