Back in July of this year, Lloyds Banking Group  released a statement in which they revealed that 38% of people in the UK confessed to not understanding financial jargon.

This knowledge gap between banks and consumers clearly existed and was perhaps heightened back in the late 1990s when Bank of Scotland (BOS) (now part of Lloyds Banking Group) was selling shared appreciation mortgages (SAMs) to customers who were unaware of the costly consequences these loans would have and in turn the impact on their, and subsequently their children’s, lives. 

SAMs have long been thought of as an unfair product, and the 2016 This Is Money investigation shone a light on the hardship these loans have inflicted on many of the bank’s customers.

Since SAMs are tied to a property’s value, they’ve become unmanageable due to increases in house prices: something the bank knew would happen but consumers did not. 

In 2024 a trial is due to take place in relation to a claim brought by 160 consumers against BOS (now Lloyds Banking Group) arising out of the unfair product they were sold in the late 1990s. 

You can keep track of the SAMs case on our website.