A building society has been fined for the second time this year after taking too long to deal with its customers’ problems, the City regulator has said.
Yorkshire Building Society apologised for the way it handled its mortgage customers’ problems between October 2011 and July 2012 after it was fined £4.1m by the FCA.
The society had also been fined £1.4m in June this year after failing to ensure a deposit product promotion was clear, fair and not misleading.
In a statement on the latest fine, the FCA said the Bradford-based building society failed to deal properly with a number of customers who were experiencing difficulties with their mortgage payments.
This led to “significant delays” in finding a solution, Tracey McDermott, the FCA’s director of enforcement and financial crime said. She added: “Customers in financial difficulty need to be treated fairly and sensitively.
“Firms must ensure that they are taking into account the particular circumstances affecting customers who find themselves in difficulty. Firms need to be dealing with these customers proactively, without delays, in order to ensure they are not losing out.
“By allowing cases to drift without agreement, YBS’s actions meant that customers in vulnerable circumstances risked falling into further financial difficulty.”
The building society said it agreed with the FCA’s findings relating to its latest fine of £4.1m.
In February, YBS voluntarily started the process of reimbursing customers who may have been incorrectly charged arrears administration fees.
This will be applied to customers going back to January 2009, and approximately 33,900 customers will be paid a total of £8.4m.
Chris Pilling, chief executive of the YBS, said: “The service we give to members is important to us and we are very sorry for letting them down.
“I hope the refunds we have voluntarily given to customers and the changes we have made demonstrate how seriously we have taken this issue and our commitment to put things right.”
The FCA said that as YBS settled at an early stage of the investigation it qualified for a 30 per cent discount.
Adviser view
Kelvin Summers of Cambridge-based Matrix Financial Ltd, said: “If a firm has done wrong and not been treating customers fairly then it should be fined.
“I would go along with any action that has been taken if Yorkshire Building Society has not had its customers’ interests at heart.”
