The Alliance and Leicester (A&L) has been fined a record £7m by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) after it was found to have "serious failings" in its telephone sales of payment protection insurance (PPI) .
FSA director of enforcement Margaret Cole said: "The failings at A&L are the most serious we have found. This is reflected in the record PPI fine. It is very disappointing that after three years of regulation we are still finding serious problems in PPI sales."
The regulator reveals that A&L failed to make it clear that PPI was optional and trained its staff to put pressure on customers when they queried the inclusion of PPI in quotations or challenged advisers' recommendations.
Between January 2005 and December 2007, A&L sold approximately 210,000 PPI policies to customers seeking a personal loan at an average price of £1,265. However, there was a general failure by A&L's advisers to give customers details of the cost of PPI, which resulted in unacceptable levels of non-compliant sales and a high risk of unsuitable sales over the three year period.




