The UK's Financial Conduct Authority has fined Clydesdale Bank £20,678,300 for serious failings in the way it handled complaints about payment protection inititiative (PPI) problems.

The bad complaint-handling occurred between May 2011 and July 2013. This is the largest fine that the FCA has ever imposed for failings related to PPI.

The FCA says: "In mid-2011 Clydesdale implemented inappropriate policies which meant that its PPI complaint handlers were not taking into account all relevant documents when deciding how to deal with complaints.

"In addition, between May 2012 and June 2013, Clydesdale provided false information to the Financial Ombudsman Service in response to requests for evidence of the records Clydesdale held on PPI policies sold to individual customers. A team within Clydesdale’s PPI complaint handling operation altered certain system print-outs (in a small number of cases) to make it look as if Clydesdale held no relevant documents and deleted all PPI information from a separate print-out listing the products sold to the customer. These practices were not known to or authorised by Clydesdale’s PPI leadership team or more senior management."