Recent Ombudsman decisions have seen a trend of redress being awarded for mis-selling of financial products where lenders have not sufficiently considered mental health concerns.
This highlights the need for lenders to be increasingly mindful of customer vulnerabilities arising from mental health issues in their approach to financial advice.
The Ombudsman recommends that:
- Lenders should be wary of discrepancies in a customer's application for a financial product or the circumstances surrounding the lending;
- Such discrepancies should prompt lenders to make further enquiries before selling a product;
- A lender has not necessarily acted unfairly or mis-sold a product if it was not reasonable to expect the lender to have anticipated the difficulties a customer might have.
Financial Mis-Selling Quarterly News March 2017
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