By Bagehot

TODAY’s British press is full of the latest row about high street banks, this time involving the aggressive marketing of payment protection insurance (PPI) to millions of customers. The biggest four British retail banks have now set aside more than £5 billion between them to cover compensation to customers mis-sold insurance purporting to cover loan, mortgage and credit card repayments if they lost their jobs or could not work because of illness or an accident. Customers in line for their money back, plus interest, include those who could not in fact have claimed because they were self-employed, for example, or those reporting they did not know or did not understand that they were buying the additional insurance.