Banks and other financial institutions sold PPI or Payment Protection Insurance, also called, loan repayment insurance or credit protection insurance, along with credit cards and other finance agreements and loans as a measure of insurance if the borrower found it difficult to repay the loan on account of an accident or disability leading to unemployment and sickness.

These financial institutions sold large volumes of these policies, leading a large quantum of valid policyholders finding to their disbelief, that they could not enforce settlement claims against these policies in spite of their retired or self-employed status.

Now a new High Court ruling, accepted by the institutions, instructs the banks and other financial institutions to check their records and tell all policyholders that they could retrieve the premiums of all policies that the organizations wrongly issued to them. Banks have started the onerous task of finding and locating these erstwhile clients who were the victims of erroneously issued PPI policies.

FSA or Financial Services Authority have now mandated the banks and financial institutions to find areas where systemic problems exist with regard to the way they sold the policies. They had particularly to make sure that the financial institutions had issued marketing paraphernalia exactly as per the FSA marketing guidelines, and if they had not, they would have to tell all their clients how and what steps they need to adopt to reclaim their premiums.

The reclaiming of the premiums would normally start on your receiving a letter from the institution, and then you follow the steps recommended to start the claim using a “template letter”. However, even if you do not receive a letter from the bank, you can proffer a claim using a PPI reclaiming guide. There is a possibility that the wrong issue of the PPI policy could have resulted from an errant staff at the bank. People who received wrong PPI policies can look forward to rightful compensation.

Now consider the case of those who have already made a claim earlier that the bank rejected. In such cases, it is never too late to shoot off a letter to the FOS or Financial Ombudsman Service, following their guideline for the genuine pursuit of such a claim. Even if the bank had rejected your claim earlier, the court ruling now obliges them to revisit the case. Several instances exist where the institutions have sent fresh letters to those whose claims they had summarily rejected earlier.

The banks, which had earlier legally defied the FSA strictures, and kept all PPI Claims in abeyance, have now fallen in line after the High Court ruling. However, a PPI Claim that both the bank and the Ombudsman have refused, is as good as dead.