Asked by: Jim McGovern (Labour - Dundee West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what measures are in place to ensure that small and medium-sized businesses, which have made losses as a result of having been sold inappropriate complex financial products including fixed rate swaps and embedded swaps, are fully compensated.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Any business which feels it has been mis- sold a fixed-rate loan should contact its bank’s customer complaints department. The FCA’s rules require the banks to properly investigate all complaints and, through ongoing supervision, the FCA monitors the banks’ complaint handling process.
If a business is not happy with its bank’s response and the business has a turnover of less than €2 million and fewer than 10 employees, the business will be eligible to apply to have a further review conducted by the Financial Ombudsman Service
Additionally, if a business believes a bank has acted unlawfully, they can seek to take action through the courts.