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Ethical traders benefit on the back of PPI scandal

It has been revealed that the Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) misselling scandal has severely affected the consumer confidence of mainstream banks, with many customers turning to ethical traders instead. A new report from the North East of England showed that an increasing number of people are turning away from big banks after missold PPI disgruntled many customers.

Ethical trading company, Shared Interest, said that people in Britain want to use alternatives for their money after it was shown that the main banking giants in the country continued to be unscrupulous in their greed. For the first time since 2011, Shared Interest saw a rise in share capital, with around 250 new investors and over 2,000 customer enquiries.

Elsewhere, Co-op said that the last three weeks had noted a 61 per cent rise in applications for current accounts, with head of banking, Robin Taylor, saying, “Customers appear to be looking for alternatives in the banking industry. We’ve had two-and-a-half times more switchers from Barclays alone. Our customers tell us that the important things to them are trust, confidence in their bank, knowledge that they are banking with an ethical business and, also, good products and service.”

For many people, the missold PPI scandal has been the last straw, making many customers wary of any products offered by mainstream banks. Those who have been sold PPI wrongly over the past decade are still going through the motions to claim back thousands of pounds in entitlement. For many people, finding an alternative place to invest and save money is a number one priority.