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A United Kingdom regulatory agency has fined UK-based Egg Banking PLC 721,000 UK pounds (US$1.08 million or 812,6000 euros) for what authorities called "serious fallings" in Egg's sale of credit card payment-protection insurance. The Financial Services Authority says that between January 2005 and December 2007, some 40% of calls Egg marketers made to customers about the insurance included deceptive tactics such as "overemphasizing the positive features of the [insurance] or telling the customer they could take [the insurance] for a free period and cancel it later if they did not want it," the authority says in a statement. "In some cases, even when the customer did not consent, [the insurance] was applied to their credit card anyway." The insurance Egg sold is designed to help borrowers who lose their incomes to keep paying their debts. The authority says Egg has sold more than 106,000 such policies at an average cost of 156 UK pounds each. "We are taking the matter very seriously and would like to apologize to any customers who have been affected," Egg says in a statement. "We will be contacting all customers impacted by this, giving them the opportunity to review whether the product was or is still suitable for them." UK-based Prudential Plc in 2007 sold its Egg credit card brand to Citigroup Inc. Egg says about 2% of the policy sales took place under "Citi ownership." The authority says it has taken action against 19 companies over similar practices.
