FSA delays PPI complaints proposals

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has delayed plans to force providers to reassess 185,000 rejected payment protection insurance (PPI) complaints.

In September, the FSA began a consultation on its proposals to introduce new guidance, which would see PPI complaints “handled properly and redressed fairly”, where appropriate.

The proposals would also require firms to re-open some 185,000 previously rejected PPI complaints and reassess them against the new guidance. The FSA had wanted its new rules to be in place by the end of the year. But this has been pushed back after it received “a large number of responses to its proposals”.

“As a result of the time it will take to examine and respond, the FSA will now issue the policy statement early in the new year,” it said.

Earlier this month, it was revealed that loan insurance providers had urged the regulator to drop proposals for them to reopen 185,000 rejected complaints, believing it unfair to apply new rules retrospectively.

The FSA said it would remain in discussions about its proposals until the end of the year but added that “firms remain obliged to treat PPI complaints fairly in the interim”.