Arnold Schwarzenegger has been recruited by the UK’s financial watchdog to help raise awareness of the termination of a deadline to make a complaint about payment protection insurance (PPI).
The Hollywood giant turned politician – perhaps best known for the Terminator series of movies before he became governor of California – will feature in a new Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) advertising campaign.
An animatronic model of his head will be urging people to decide about making a PPI complaint before the deadline on August 29, 2019.
The adverts are aimed at prompting people to check if they had PPI and whether they want to make a complaint as the decade-long scandal draws to a close.
FCA chief executive Andrew Bailey said: “Our campaign aims to cut through the noise on PPI.
“We want to encourage people to decide whether to find out if they had PPI and whether to complain or not. Our message, and Arnie’s, is do it now.”
PPI policies were mis-sold alongside loans, credit cards, store cards and mortgages mostly between the 1990s and 2010. More than £27.4billion has been paid out to customers by high street banks since the FCA introduced rules for complaining about PPI in 2011.
The ads featuring Schwarzenegger will appear on TV, online and on outdoor advertising across the UK over the next two years.
Production costs totalling £4.9million are being paid for by the 18 banks, building societies and credit card providers which have had the most PPI complaints.
The overall campaign is costing £42.2million, which includes £24.4million on advertising and £3million on “partnerships, PR and social media customer service”.
PPI Claims Scotland managing director Jonathan Lockhart said: “The whole PPI scandal was a complete racket. Now the banks are paying the FCA to make it go away.”
