Barclays bank has decided to fight the ban on the sale of Payment Protection Insurance alongside credit cards and loans imposed by the Competition Commission. This is despite a damning report published earlier this year which accused banks of making 1.4 billion per year in excess profits from selling the insurance.

The insurance is supposed to protect borrowers who go off work through illness, an accident or redundancy by maintaining the monthly payments on their loans and credit cards. The problem has been that around 2 million people have been sold this insurance but due to the exclusions on the policies, they would never have been able to make a claim.

And who mis-sold these 2 million policies?

You’ve guessed it – primarily the banks! 99.9% of PPI policies sold to protect a personal loan were sold by banks and 98.5% of policies protecting credit cards were sold by banks. It is estimated that there are some 15 million PPI policies and Barclays was one of the top five sellers. The Commission found that a lender could potentially make a profit of 982% charging on average £1,200 for a policy that cost £20 to provide. No wonder they want the ban lifted. They want their cash cow back!

But can they be trusted to ethically sell PPI alongside loans and credit cards? Well if history has anything to go by, the answer is a resounding NO.

We say the Competition Commission is most certainly right.