- The bank unveiled higher-than-expected rise in quarterly figures, with a 22% rise in pre-tax profits to £2.4bn.

- The retail banking division saw pre-tax profits rise 16% to £334m.

- Barclays group income rose 5% to £8.1 billion.

- Investment bank Barclays Capital saw a 3%.

Barclays profits are on the rise

- The bank issued gross new lending of £10.1 billion to households and business, the same as 2010.

- The bank also raised £1.5 billion of loans under the Government’s National Loan Guarantee Scheme.

- The group held its quarterly dividend at 1p a share.

- The damage from bad debts was reduced by 16 per cent to £778 million in the quarter.

- The lender also reduced its exposure to toxic debts in Italy, Portugal, Greece Spain and Ireland by 16% to £6 billion.

- CEO Bob Diamond agreed not to receive half of his £2.7 million all-shares bonus award for 2011 if certain performance targets are not met within three years.

The debate continues on whether Bob Diamond should receive the huge wage he is entitled to and despite the fact that he openly rejected half of his bonus, some say he is still paid too much. The other side of the argument is that Barclays is a private business and didn’t come cap in hand to the tax-payer, so they should be free to pay whatever they like.

The ASU (Accident, sickness and unemployment coverage) or the loan protection is also known as PPI.

There are certain guidelines that the banks, brokers and financial institutions follow while selling the PPI to you. However, there are cases of misrepresentation and mis sold PPI, though they can be claimed under proper guidelines.

Most of you are unaware of the PPI that comes as add on to the loans or credit that you take. Ensure proper read of the fine print to avoid the smallest details escaping from your notice.

In case of loans, the premium is might be shown on the loan agreement statement as a lump sum amount of money. However, it is up to you to make sure you check whether the charges for the insurance are actually being added to your account every month.

In case you have a credit card loan with an activated PPI policy, you can easily start off with the claim today.

It is also known as loan protection insurance or accident, sickness and unemployment cover (ASU).

All financial institutions, banks and brokers have to follow certain fixed rules while selling payment protection insurance. If this is wrongly sold, the consumer can make ppi claims in the future.

Millions of people with credit cards and multiple loans are totally unaware of the fact that their loan or credit card agreement also includes payment protection insurance. Therefore, you should check thoroughly if you also fall in this category.

If you have taken a loan, the premium might show on your loan agreement statement a lump sum amount added to your loan from the start. For credit card agreements, you should check your statements to see whether charges for insurance have been added to your account every month.

If you have a credit card or loan to pay, you should always check whether you are being made a victim of ppi. In such a case, you can recover a large amount as compensation. Read more here…

“Instead of focusing on returning PPI payments to consumers, the Competition Commission – backed by the Office of Fair Trading and the Financial Services Authority – is adding insult to injury by running free technical briefings this summer to teach banks and lenders how to legitimately market their rip-off PPI policies,” said Tim Hunt, a journalist and marketing professional who has advised companies for more than 25 years.

“It’s not future remedies that the public needs, they want their money back right now for being mis-sold PPIs over the past decade. And, fancy new marketing and sales techniques won’t disguise the fact that PPIs are fundamentally flawed. Even you will agree that PPI is usually a poor deal and the consumer has been stitched up.”

He has also criticized the OFT for choosing not to take action on getting payment protection insurance payments back to consumers but instead passing the buck back to the Competition Commission. Along with that, he also blames the FSA for making controversial statements but doing precious little when it comes to intervening and solving the issue. He has also cited the example of a recent speech made by the FSA MD of Retail Markets who strategically admitted to the fact that many providers and distributors were aware of the issues that needed to be rectified beforehand, but did nothing to salvage the situation. Read more here…

There are different ways by which a mis sold PPI policy can be bought. You can check from the options listed below whether any of these apply to you.

• You were made to convince that the payment protection insurance was mandatory or that it would better your chances of getting approved for a loan
• PPI was added without your knowledge
• You were retired, unemployed or self-employed when you took the cover
• You were not told that PPI was optional or that it is possible for you to buy cheaper cover elsewhere
• You were not informed about the policy exclusions

If any of the above options is applicable in your case, you have the liberty of claim PPI back. You can easily do that online. The average claim is over £2000. Therefore, it makes good sense to go for it.

With an estimated 20 million PPI policies in the UK critics say that mis sold PPI is greatly overpriced and difficult to make a claim on. This prompted the FSA to take strict action against institutions and lenders found to be guilty of mis-selling PPI.

“PPI is and will remain a top priority for us and is one of the largest regulatory investigations we have ever mounted.”

Chief Executive Loretta Minghella has maintained: “The FSCS will continue playing a valuable role in promoting consumer confidence in 2010/11 by paying compensation when firms fail. In the light of recent investment firm failures, we are expecting the costs of investment compensation to rise significantly over the coming months.”

“In addition, PPI claims will be an important driver of our business next year and will contribute to significant costs estimated at £50.5m in the general insurance intermediation sub-class.”

“Although the situation is fluid, our current assumption is that around 8,000 PPI claims will come in during the next year. That’s almost double the number we expect this year.”

“In such tough economic times, we recognise that the interim and annual levies will be unwelcome news for firms. We take great care in determining our indicative levies though our primary obligation is to deliver compensation to those entitled to our protection. Doing so helps to promote consumer confidence, which also benefits the industry.”

The FSCS is expected to review its claims and funding assumptions, while setting a date for the initial levy in March. Check out more here…

The FSCS has also anticipated that the number of claims that it receives in all the areas of business that it covers, namely, endowment, mortgages and pension review claims might also decrease to a considerable extent. Have a read here for more…

Do any of these apply to you?

• You didn’t ask for it, but it PPI was added anyway?
• You were told the insurance was compulsory or told taking it would give you a better chance of getting the loan.
• You didn’t know it was optional or that you could buy cheaper PPI cover elsewhere.
• You were unemployed, retired, self-employed when you took out the cover.
• The policy exclusions were not pointed out to you.

Often general credit card and loan customers are mis-sold PPI. Because of the many pressures on financial institutions, a customer can reclaim the PPI charges they have incurred. Read more here…

When somebody applies for a card or a loan, a Payment Protection Insurance plan is sold alongside, promising help in making sure the completion of their payments during a period of sudden unemployment or incapacity which can result to revenue loss. The major drawback of the exchange is demonstrated in the way PPI premiums prompt an upsurge in regular payments as concealed charges. PPI mis-selling happens once an individual isn’t informed that there’ll be extra payments concerned in enrolling for coverage and how this may affect computation of total debt. All borrowers have every right to say no agreeing to credit insurance or opt to utilise coverage from an unrelated party.

Claims can be filed to reverse charges for mis-sold loan insurance and different types of PPI. This will cut the amount of debt someone has by an important margin and help take off some stress in meeting monthly duties towards banks and other lending establishments. Check online for firms that offer recommendation in filing for mis-sold insurance claims and learn how to go about building a valid complaint. Claims consultants have started posting info on the web to let more folks find out more about this concern and supply instant recommendation while facilitating the claims process inside a shorter quantity of time.

Getting the right recommendation is crucial as this could guarantee if a mis-sold PPI claim has a reasonable chance to start with and successfully retrieving cash that can be utilised to eliminate debt earlier than predicted.