For a period of six years, Nationwide didn't remind thousands of its customers with PPI policies in place that they had them.
This is a direct breach of the competition rules - designed to let people keep on top of what they're paying for - and as a result it now has to hand £2million pounds back to those it wronged.
Adam Land from the Competitions and Markets Authority said: “Nationwide has broken the rules by not sending essential PPI reminders to their customers. 8 years on from our legally-binding Order, it is simply unacceptable that the CMA is having to remind Britain’s biggest banks of their legal obligations.
“Nationwide has failed its customers by denying them important information, and the directions we’ve issued today will lead to affected customers receiving the refunds they deserve.
“Such breaches are serious and, if we had the extra powers we’ve proposed to the government, could have resulted in fines.”
The CMA found that over a six-year period, from 2012 to 2017, Nationwide didn't send customers reminders about their policies - meaning people did not have all the relevant information to help them decide if they wanted to continue paying for PPI.
It also meant it was harder for them to shopping around effectively and might even have forgotten they were paying for the policy entirely.
Nationwide was also found to have sent out inaccurate reminders between 2012 and 2019.
These had incorrect information in them about the yearly cost of insurance, meaning customers might have thought their PPI was cheaper than it was.
On top of the £2million it's being required to pay, Nationwide said it has already repaid more than £100,000 to customers who did not receive reminders.
The building society said it's in the process of refunding thousands more customers who received inaccurate information, with total repayments of up to £2 million expected.
