N Brown doubles FY exceptional costs estimate

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Apr 12, 2017

British retailer N Brown said Tuesday that it expects to have a higher FY17 exceptional cost than it had previously estimated as mis-sold financial services products and a new deadline for complaints are likely to double the cost of future complaints.

The group had previously expected exceptional costs to reach £12m, of which £9m were related to financial services customer complaint redress. It now expects to exceptional cost to be in the region of £22m to £24m.

The decision was taken after the Financial Conduct Authority said its industry-wide deadline on PPI complaints would be August 2019, a year later than expected.

N Brown also said it has experienced a greater than anticipated volume of complaints due to wider public awareness of the August 2019 deadline. Additionally, the age profile of complaints received are typically older than we had previously experienced, which increases the average redress amount.

“We therefore expect to incur an FY17 exceptional cost related to financial services customer complaint redress in the region of £22m - £24m. The cash cost associated with this exceptional item will be incurred over the period to August 2019,” said the company.

The FY17 full year results will be announced on 27 April.