Professional Personal Claims Limited (PPC) has been fined £70,000 by the FCA for misleading consumers across its websites and printed materials.

PPC’s advertising was found to have been clearly using the logos of five major banks, which the FCA deemed had misled consumers into believing they were submitting redress claims for mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI) directly to their banks.

The fine, which followed the transfer to the FCA of the regulatory responsibility for claims management companies (CMCs) on 1 April 2019, was imposed after consumers had pursued PPI claims rather than engage PPC as a CMC.

The FCA indicated PPC should have instead pursued any claims on their consumers' behalf, in return for payment of a success fee.

PPC was originally investigated before 1 April 2019 and fined £70,000 by the previous regulator for CMCs, the Claims Management Regulator (CMR).

PPC appealed on 21 December 2018 against the CMR’s penalty notice, and it was while the appeal was pending that the FCA took over regulation of CMCs from the CMR. The FCA therefore replaced the CMR as the respondent to PPC’s pending appeal.

On 16 September 2019, after reviewing the evidence put forward by the FCA, PPC withdrew its appeal, and the regulator therefore imposed the £70,000 fine on PPC for the failings identified during the CMR’s penalty notice.

Commenting on the case, FCA executive director of enforcement and market oversight, Mark Steward, said: “CMCs have an important role to play in helping to secure compensation for their customers. This is especially true in the case of those consumers who might not otherwise make a claim.

"PPC’s misleading website and marketing material suggested PPC was associated with the five banks when this was not the case. Claims management firms must ensure their advertising is accurate. Not only in terms of what they say about themselves and their services, but also in terms of what is represented.”

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