What impact is Covid-19 having on Financial Mis-selling claims?

Covid-19 has brought the world to a standstill. During the pandemic, “normal daily life” has been redefined with up to a third of the world’s population in some form of lock down in an attempt to slow the spread of this very contagious and deadly virus.

In the UK, people have been encouraged to “Stay at home, protect the NHS, save lives”. At APJ Solicitors we absolutely support this initiative and implemented a series of actions pre lock-down in order to protect our colleagues and remain as close to business as usual as possible in what is now the new “normal”. Our client updates, with useful links to various stakeholders, can be found here.

In the current situation, we remain committed to our number one objective; ensuring the safety of our colleagues while continuing to deliver an optimal service to our clients.

To do this, we are working closely with several key stakeholders including potential defendants and have summarised the key updates below:

The Major Banks and Lenders
There is currently a mixed response from the major banks with each making decisions based on their own technical capabilities and capacity. There is a split between lenders that are continuing with business as usual and those who have reduced their output or have suspended non-essential activity. If your claim becomes affected by a pause in activity from the banks, we will write to you (electronically) to let you know.

The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS)
The FOS have expressed that they are changing the way they normally operate. This means it is highly likely that they will take longer than usual. However, they are fully committed to continuing to provide the best service possible to people who currently need it the most. For the full FOS update click here.

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS)
The FSCS have now confirmed that they want to reassure everyone who is currently dealing with them that they are going to continue delivering their services as normal for the time being ensuring staff can work remotely.

At present, they will still be reviewing your claim in the usual time frames and they will be continuing to make compensation payments for as long as possible. For the full FSCS update click here.

As with the wider Pandemic response, the above processes will stay in place for as long as necessary and while the wider COVID-19 response adapts, we expect there to be further updates and changes too.

We understand that a sense of uncertainty can be disheartening, at APJ we remain absolutely committed to our objective and will continue to work closely (and remotely!) with all major stakeholders to make sure our clients are getting the outcomes that are rightly owed to them.

Despite the current situation, it remains important to us to keep you updated on key decisions within the industry as and when they are put into place. You can keep up to date weekly by heading to our Industry Insights page on our website.

Coronavirus Scams
Unfortunately, Coronavirus has not stopped opportunistic scammers trying to take advantage of people worried about their financial position or the wider economic impact of the pandemic. The FSCS have highlighted ‘COVID-19 scams’ and have advised that these scams cover a wide range of products, “including pensions, insurance policies and investment”.

Scammers are often clever, opportunistic and will try many different tactics to get your money. Some are even promising to ‘beat the coronavirus’. Please remember, anything that sounds too good to be true usually is. You can read about online scams from our blog How to spot an online scam.

Other than that, we hope that you, your family and loved ones remain in good health and are not too badly affected. To reiterate though, please “Stay at home, protect the NHS, save lives”.

If you feel that you may have fallen victim of mis-selling, get in touch today for a consultation.