The CMA has written a public letter to Barclays because the bank failed to send reminders to up to 1,306 customers about their payment protection insurance (PPI) policies. This meant a breach of Article 4 of the Payment Protection Insurance Market Investigation Order 2011 which requires PPI providers to send an Annual Review to customers in relation to their policies.
Barclays should have sent the Annual Reviews to its former Mortgage Payment Protection Insurance (MPPI) customers who were policyholders between 2014-2017. Many of these customers had notified Barclays of a change of address, but Barclays had failed to pass on this information internally. The error was only discovered in late 2021, which the CMA’s letter highlights as a concern.
The CMA said that as a result of Barclays’ breach, some of their customers may have continued paying for MPPI after it ceased to be suitable for their needs. Barclays is now taking remedial steps including communicating with all affected policyholders, offering a gesture of goodwill payment and offering most customers the opportunity to claim a full refund of premiums from the date of the first missed Annual Review. The CMA’s letter notes that the total remediation package could reach £1 million.
The CMA is not pursuing further enforcement action. However, it has been recorded on the CMA’s register of breaches, and Barclays’s compliance will be monitored in future.