GE Capital Bank pays £610,000 for insurance misselling

In 2005 GE Capital Bank (GECB) sold more than 850,000 new insurance policies connected with consumer credit products, principally store cards. It has been fined £610,000 for failing to ensure that the sales procedures adopted by, primarily, staff in retail stores were compliant. Typically, the ‘Account Cover’ package, sold through shops, acting as appointed representatives, on the back of a store card application, included: payment protection insurance (PPI), which would pay off a proportion of the debit balance each month if unemployment resulted from accident, sickness or redundancy; purchase protection for items bought, covering loss or accidental damage; price protection against the risk that a purchase might be reduced in price within a set time after it was bought; and life cover to pay the outstanding balance on the death of the insured.