Point-of-sale ban will mean 'better products and more choice'

The Competition Commission has announced that its point-of-sale ban on payment protection insurance (PPI) will open up the sale of such products to a wider range of providers.

The point-of-sale prohibition, announced by the commission last week, will halt the selling of PPI during the sale of linked credit products such as personal loans.

A report by the commission, which was also published last week, found that consumers paid higher premiums if they bought a PPI policy at the point of sale rather than being called back a day later.

The Commission’s deputy chairman, Peter Davis, said: “The package of remedies – including the point-of-sale prohibition – will introduce competition, which is likely to bring substantial benefits to customers in terms of lower prices, better products and more choice.”

Compensation payments for customers mis-sold PPI products lies behind the eight-fold increase in the Financial Services Compensation Scheme levy, which Insurance Times’s ‘Fair Fees’ campaign is seeking to curb.