Barclays is facing a £38.5 million bill to compensate people over solar panel loan mis-selling by businesses that brokered its finance deals. Barclays Partner Finance, a subsidiary of the bank, has reported a 15-fold increase in cash set aside for customer redress after commissioning external solicitors to review its liabilities. The Times revealed in May that Barclays faced paying compensation after solar salesman had misled households into taking out its loans to fund rooftop solar panels. About 900,000 households in the UK have solar panels installed. The Financial Ombudsman Service received a surge in complaints last year from people who typically had been promised that the panels would “pay for themselves”. In fact, the loan repayments often exceeded the financial benefits of the panels. The ombudsman named BPF as one of the lenders most frequently involved in complaints cases. Between 2011 and 2015 it provided “point of sale” loans to finance rooftop solar panels.
Times 1st Oct 2018 read more »