The Hinckley & Rugby Building Society has highlighted how it is being bombarded with “bogus” PPI claims from claims management firms.
This follows the call from the Building Societies Association (BSA) for tougher regulation of claims management companies (CMCs).
The overwhelming majority of complaints to Hinckley & Rugby Building Society are not even from (or relate to) customers of the society, it says.
“Just in the last three months we have had 32 complaints of mis-selling of mortgage payment protection insurance (MPPI) but only one was from a customer who had an MPPI policy with us,” said Chris White, Hinckley & Rugby Building Society chief executive.
“People are simply trying their luck by complaining either directly or via a claims management company. I think they must simply hope that this shotgun approach will yield something from building societies or banks who might be tempted to pay up without investigating.”
Hinckley & Rugby has not had to pay any compensation to any customers. Only two complaints have gone to the Financial Ombudsman Service and neither were upheld against the Society.
White added: “The problem with these bogus complaints is that our duty is to investigate each one within the Financial Services Authority rules as though it was genuine. That is a burden on the Society in terms of time, cost and staff resource.”
The mutual also bemoaned the time and resources of fishing expeditions by claims management companies making subject access requests under data protection legislation.
White said: “It costs these companies just £10 for us to supply copies of any paper records we hold about an individual.
“I believe they are doing this in lots of instances just to comb through the paperwork in the vain hope of finding evidence of something that can complained about. Again, it costs the Society time and money to comply with the request, as we are bound to by legislation.”