As PPI deadline is announced, Lloyds Banks profits are up to almost £2bn
Third quarter profits hit a staggering 141% rise on last year’s figures. “Underlying profit for the period was £2.08bn, up 9% on 2016”, as noted by the BBC.
Lloyds Bank has reported a rise in profits following an announcement from the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) of the impending PPI deadline. The high street lender has already paid out over £18bn in mis-sold PPI claims and that amount went up following the FCA’s Arnold Schwarzenegger campaign released in August.
That doesn’t make sense
Articles and reports have been popping up all over the mainstream media with this news of the rise in profits for Lloyds Bank, but something doesn’t sit right. This rise in profits doesn’t seem to make sense, given that the campaign from the FCA was “apparently” supposed to encourage people make their claims before the deadline. Lloyds said that in the first week after the FCA campaign they received 16,000 claims per week. Since then, it has dropped back to 11,000. The bank also said they are not setting aside any more for PPI claims, having set aside a final £700m in July. Is it a bit of a coincidence that these articles have come out in the media reducing the number of claims? We think not.
Don’t believe everything you read on the internet!
Lloyds PR team are clearly onto a bit of a winner. By stating that the bank is back in profit and that they aren’t setting aside any more money, they are suggesting that it is the end of the PPI scandal. Now, to the average customer at Lloyds, this might suggest that it’s too late to claim. This is a very clever marketing ploy by Lloyds, almost saying “let’s show the public that the PPI scandal is over, nothing to see here, it’s finished. There’s no more funds being set aside”. What better way for them to get out of paying for any more mis-sold PPI? Don’t forget that the deadline isn’t until the 29th August 2019!
The figures that have been thrown around though do raise more questions. If the bank has already paid back over £18bn in mis-sold PPI, but over 64 million policies were mis-sold, how much did the bank actually make from mis-sold PPI? Let have a look at this in more depth in tomorrow’s blog.
If you believe you have been mis-sold PPI and would like us to do a free check for you to find out, why not drop your details below or give us a call on our Freephone number: 0800 007 3777