Professor William Black:

PPI is an insurance policy that is sold along with a loan as an allied product. It tries to take advantage of people's fear of unemployment. It basically says that if you lose your job after a certain period - and only for a very limited period - it will pay some or all of the loan. It is, in United States terms, sort of like a credit life policy. As an undergraduate 40 years ago, I was taught never to buy a product like this. We have known for a very long time that it is a complete rip-off product. On top of that, it was sold to people who were self-employed - who literally could not collect under the terms of the policy.