The bank said it had become “aware of issues” at one of its PPI complaints handling centres and had terminated its contract with the site’s operator, Deloitte.
It follows an investigation by The Times – which sent a reporter to work undercover at the centre at Royal Mint Court in London – which uncovered a string of claims against the bank.
These included that it believed most customers would give up pursuing their complaint if the bank rejected it the first time around, and that complaint handlers should effectively turn a blind eye to the risk of fraud.
The reporter also claimed he was told that a job as a PPI complaint handler could be “morally difficult”, and that some bank salesmen had faked PPI information in agreements on sales.
Billions has been paid out by banks in compensation to customers who were mis-sold PPI, in what has been recognised as one of the biggest scandals in financial services history. Lloyds has paid £4.3bn to some 1.3 million customers.
Lloyds said in a statement: “Earlier this year we became aware of issues at a PPI complaints handling centre called Royal Mint Court in central London.
“This site was operated for us by a third party supplier, Deloitte. Following further investigations we took immediate action, and in May concluded our contract with Deloitte and moved to a new supplier.
“Some of the comments made by trainers to the Times reporter are not endorsed by Lloyds Banking Group and we believe they do not reflect our high training standards or our policies.
“We believe the comments to be isolated and they are now being addressed. Following the discovery of these issues and under the guidance of a new supplier the employees are currently undergoing retraining in line with our policies and procedures.”
