Comment: Why is the watchdog calling time on claiming for PPI?

It’s PPI claims deadline day. That little abbreviation has had an outsized impact on the banking industry’s profits and reputation.

Any mis-selling claim filed after 11.59pm today will be invalid. Can’t get through your bank’s creaking IT system? The Financial Conduct Authority won’t extend it. But I’m told banks “will be required to treat their customers fairly”.

They’re not very good at that. It’s how this mess came to be created.

A product protecting credit card and loan repayments in the event of illness and/or injury is a good idea in theory. In practice, PPI policies often came with enough small print to fill a short novel. Much of it had exclusions that made policies economically worthless to their holders, but hugely profitable for the banks.

Forcing them to pay redress, the total is approaching £40 billion, providing a nice windfall for the UK economy. This will be absent from the Brexit-driven economic shock that may be coming.

The decision by the FCA to call time remains questionable. If someone is ripped off they should be able to seek redress at their leisure and not to suit the banking industry.

On the other hand, the advertising blitz insisted on as the price for calling last orders, will have encouraged some people to claim who might not otherwise have done so.

Those just beating the deadline - which could still be extended - will be in a process that requires them to complain to their lender before approaching a Financial Ombudsman Service which has been swamped in paperwork if they don’t like the result.

This has made it manna from heaven for claims companies. The banking industry should take a hard look at itself when the dust has settled. Ditto its regulator.