Lloyds Bank fined EUR 71 mln

According to The Guardian, the fine is linked to Lloyds’ mishandling between 2011 and 2015 of more than 526.000 mortgage customers, who have since been reimbursed a total of EUR 334 million.  The problem started with how the bank gathered information about mortgage customers who had fallen behind or were finding it difficult to make payments. It meant call handlers did not have adequate information to assess customers’ circumstances. It led to a less flexible system in which call handlers may have failed to negotiate appropriate payment arrangements for customers.

The Financial Conduct Authority said the issues got worse when Lloyds combined its mortgage handling and unsecured lending call handler teams as part of a simplification programme that followed its merger with HBOS during the financial crisis. A number of sites that had specialised in mortgages arrears were closed and operations moved to sites where most call handlers were new to the role.