One of the Britain's biggest banks has been fined a record sum of £610,000 for selling of payment protection insurance (PPI) policies, without providing proper information to the consumers.

London (shakespearefinance) 01 Feb 2007: Financial Services Authority (FSA) has fined one of Britain's biggest retailers a record sum of £610,000 for selling of payment protection insurance (PPI) policies, without providing proper information to the consumers.

It was found that GE CAPITAL BANK, which supplies store cards for Debenhams, Asda and BHS, has misled customers while selling PPI policies. The investigators have stated that the bank did not provide sufficient training to their employees on the policies. The employees, in turn, failed to provide the customer with necessary information on PPI's before selling them.

PPI policies are used by consumers who have taken out secured loansto ensure that the loan is repaid to the lender on time, even if they lose their job or become physically unfit to work.

Margaret Cole, The FSA's director of enforcement, told The Guardian that consumers needed to be made aware that PPI policies are almost always optional. She also added that the FSA would continue its crackdown on lenders who sold the insurance ignoring the required procedure.

She further said that their focus on PPI would remain very high that year and that they are determined to see significantly better practice in PPI sales, and would crack down where firms failed to treat their customers fairly. GE Capital confirms that, sometimes, customers were not given all the relevant information through a statement.

A spokesman said that GECB fully accepted responsibility for how the policies were sold. He added that they would continue to take steps to ensure that no customer had lost out financially.