Lloyds Boss - Worse than Expected, Banks' chiefs face a grilling

Its been a few weeks since the banks decided not to appeal the Judicial Review ruling in the High Court. As a result, we did expect to see cases being investigated and settled.

Unfortunately, this has not yet happened (aside from a selection of cases with MBNA). I am really disappointed with some of the other banks for failing to have any provision in place to begin dealing with the claims. It seems to be that the banks were woefully under prepared following the Judicial Review - this is only serving to delay the settlement of cases further. We are determined to push the banks as much as possible so all our clients' outstanding cases can be settled and we hope to see real movement with the banks' processing sooner rather than later.

On another issue, the new chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group, António Horta-Osório, has admitted the problems he inherited were much more severe than he ever anticipated. He went on to say that it could take up to five years for the bank to recover. He specifically focused on particular problems but said some, such as the mis-selling of payment protection insurance and bad Irish loans 'ran deeper' than he expected.

This comes as little shock given the huge amount of cases we have been dealing with against Lloyds over the last few years. We have always had more Lloyds PPI mis-selling cases than any other bank and the £3.2 billion set aside to compensate customers is a sobering reminder.

Finally, the bosses of the big banks are due to face some tough questioning from MPs on their failure to hit lending targets agreed earlier this year. The pressure is also growing for a new tax on bankers' bonuses. The bankers are also expected to be asked why they decided to give up on the issue of payment protection insurance and drop their legal challenge (which no doubt cost the banks millions to bring).

If you think you have been mis-sold PPI, please get in touch with us at www.ppireturn.co.uk. Now has never been a better time to make a claim!