CMA takes action against Barclays for breaching PPI Order 

The breach is in relation to Article 4 of the order, stating that PPI providers must send an annual review of a customer’s policy to them, the CMA are alleging that Barclays have failed to send Annual Reviews to up to 1,306 of its former Mortgage Payment Protection Insurance (MPPI) policyholders between 2014 and 2017. 

The letter states that: “In many cases these customers held both a mortgage and a MPPI policy with Barclays, had moved house/changed mortgage provider, and notified Barclays (as their mortgage or banking provider) of their new address. 

“Barclays failed to pass the new address onto the business unit tasked with sending out the Annual Reviews in respect of the MPPI policy, which these customers continued to hold with Barclays.

“These Annual Reviews were therefore sent to the customers’ old addresses, with the effect that these customers then stopped receiving Annual Reviews in subsequent years.” 

The letter also notes that Barclays notified the CMA of the breach on 8 October 2021 and completed its analysis of which customers were affected on 30 September 2022. The breach took place in 2017 but was only discovered in 2021.  

The letter notes that Barclays is taking the following steps to remediate the affected policyholders. Barclays will: Write to all affected policyholders; Provide an up-to-date Annual Review statement, offer all affected customers a gesture of goodwill payment and offer many affected customers the opportunity to submit a claim for a full refund of premiums from the date of the first missed Annual Review.  

The CMA believes that no further action is required on this matter.

Credit Strategy reached out to Barclays for comment. A spokesperson for the company had this to say: “Following a recent review, Barclays will be putting things right for a small number of current and former Mortgage PPI policyholders who did not receive Annual Review statements when they should have. We apologise to those impacted and for any inconvenience this may have caused.”