Lloyds Fined $125 Million For Insurance Communication Failures

(Bloomberg) -- Lloyds Banking Group Plc’s insurance unit was fined 90.7 million pounds ($125 million) by the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority for failing to make sure language in millions of home insurance policies was clear.

The FCA said the insurance division sent nearly nine million communications between January 2009 and November 2017 telling customers they were getting a competitive price when they renewed their policies. The company didn’t take steps to check that was accurate, the regulator said Thursday.

The firm’s renewal letters “risked serious consumer harm,” Mark Steward, the FCA’s executive director of enforcement and market oversight, said in a statement.

The FCA said it was likely that premiums quoted at renewal would have increased over prior rates and were probably higher than prices offered to new customers or those who switched insurers.

“We’ve written and made payment to those customers affected by the discount issue and they don’t need to take any further action,” Lloyds said in a statement. “We’re sorry that we got this wrong.”

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