N&P hands Keydata investors £2m loan lifeline

The Norwich & Peterborough Building Society will offer £2 million worth of interest-free loans to 1,600 customers who were sold Keydata products by its advisers. 

Customers will not have to repay the loan but the building society will use any money returned from Keydata products via the Financial Services Compensation Scheme or from compensation awarded to offset the payouts.  

The building society opened the offer to customers shortly after solicitors Regulatory Legal announced plans to bring legal action against N&P on behalf of 3,500 customers. N&P said the loan will be available for a year and was meant to cover income payments lost due to problems with Keydata products.  

Independent financial advisers from N&P sold Keydata products, which invested into SLS Capital and Lifemark, to 3,500 customers. From the £2 million investors will receive an amount approximate to what they would have received as income from the Keydata product.

‘A number of our savers are clearly strapped because income from investments has been cut off since January and it is taking much longer than we thought to sort out,’ said Matthew Bullock (pictured), chief executive of the N&P Building Society. ‘I don’t know what the take-up will be, but this is just the right thing to do.’