Financial Services Authority

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has announced it is planning to launch new advice for consumers regarding payment protection insurance (PPI).

The City watchdog has revealed it is aiming to provide new advice to consumers that will help people make more informed choices when looking at PPI. The move comes as part of the FSA's efforts to reduce the threat of consumers being mis-sold PPI products.

In recent years, a number of studies into the payment protection industry have found that the vast majority of consumers are not fully aware of what PPI entails and as such have taken out policies that are not right for their circumstances or that they do not need. Both the FSA and Office of Fair Trading (OFT) have reported on the problems affecting the PPI industry in recent years and as such the FSA is looking to provide consumers with more information to reduce the risk of products being mis-sold to them.

Announcing the plans, the FSA explained in a statement: "There is currently little information available to help consumers shop around."

The watchdog said it would publish more guidance on PPI on its website and is planning to introduce tables that compare the different PPI policies that are available. It is hoped that this move will result in more consumers being informed about the types of PPI policies that would benefit them, as well as ensuring that they are aware of the products that they do not need.

This latest move demonstrates the FSA's commitment to tackle mis-selling of PPI and to ensure that consumers have as much information as possible to make informed choices.

The new guidance will be appearing on the FSA's website from March next year.

Robin Gordon-Walker, a spokesperson from the FSA, explained that the organisation's research had found that many consumers are still taking PPI direct from a lender, without looking around to find the best option for them. The new approach to providing consumers with more information is designed to make it easier for people to look at the different options that might be open to them and open up the way PPI is bought by consumers.