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The figure represents about a third of the 3.75
billion pounds set aside by Britain's four biggest banks -
Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland
- to deal with the issue.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in May ordered banks to
review almost 30,000 cases for possible mis-selling after
finding "serious failings" in the way the products - known as
swaps - were sold.
The swaps were sold on the basis that they would help to protect
smaller companies against the risk of rising interest rates.
However, when rates fell customers had to pay large bills,
typically running to tens of thousands of pounds.
Companies faced penalty charges if they wanted to get out of the
deals, conditions that many businesses said they were not told
about when purchasing the products.
About a third of customers in the review had their cases
dismissed because they were deemed sophisticated enough to have
understood the products. More than half of those left under
review were then offered alternative hedging products rather
than full cash compensation.
By the end of June 16,000 customers had been sent decisions
about redress, the FCA said on Friday. Of those, 13,500 were
offered compensation with a cash element. So far 8,000 customers
have accepted offers of compensation.
The regulator said last month that the nine banks involved in
the review had a met a 12-month deadline to look at all cases,
though some banks still had to communicate all decisions to
customers.
($1 = 0.5877 British Pounds)
(Reporting by Clare Hutchison; Editing by David Goodman)
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