UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has imposed a £20.7m fine on Scotland’s Clydesdale Bank for serious failings in its Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) complaint handling processes between May 2011 and July 2013.
FCA noted that the fine is the largest ever imposed by the agency for failings relating to PPI.
Clydesdale deployed inappropriate policies in mid 2011, which meant PPI complaint handlers have not taken all relevant documents into account when the policy sold to customers.
Clydesdale also provided false information to the Financial Ombudsman Service for a period between May 2012 and June 2013, in a reply to requests for evidence of the records Clydesdale held on PPI policies sold to individual customers.
FCA enforcement and market oversight acting director Georgina Philippou said: "Clydesdale’s failings were unacceptable and fell well below the standard the FCA expects.
"The fact that Clydesdale misled the Financial Ombudsman by providing false information about the information it held is particularly serious and this is reflected in the size of the fine.
According to FCA, Clydesdale is involved in reviewing all PPI complaints handled prior to August 2014, in a bid to provide solution to the customers impacted by the failings.