The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is losing patience with firms that are selling payment protection insurance (PPI) and not treating customers fairly in the process, and threatening to take tough action against them.

A recent survey of 150 firms undertaken by the regulator has revealed that providers are not giving customers enough information to decide on an informed basis whether or not they need the cover.

Clive Briault of the FSA said: “While some improvement has been seen in the industry, we are extremely disappointed that some firms have still made little progress in improving their sales practices.

“Customers must be told how the product works, what it covers and how much it costs. At the moment, too many firms are not meeting these requirements.”

He added: “We will now strengthen our action against firms that fail to treat customers fairly when selling PPI.”

ED’S COMMENT

PPI is one of the biggest rip-offs in the personal finance arena and I have not bought any since I got mugged into doing it some years ago when I took out a credit card. On looking at the small print (and there was a lot of it) I was struck by how many exclusions there were on the policy, making it extremely difficult to claim. The FSA is big on talking tough, but it really needs to sort these firms out and punish those that continue to abuse consumers’ trust by offering expensive and third-rate products.