HSBC has been forced to put aside nearly £750m to compensate customers mis-sold payment protection insurance as Britain’s largest bank said it had been hit by a rise in claims during the first three months of the year. The lender said it made a £290m ($468m) provision in the first quarter against PPI claims, taking the total amount set aside to pay out compensation to £745m. HSBC’s provision follows similar moves by Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland, which have all seen a spike in compensation claims since the beginning of the year. Stuart Gulliver, chief executive of HSBC, added to the criticism of PPI claims management companies and said they were putting in thousands of bogus claims creating an “administrative hassle” that was delaying payouts to genuine victims. Mr Gulliver said the authorities needed to take action against claims companies, saying they currently had a "zero cost option" to bring "spurious" claims against the banks. Mr Gulliver’s comment came as the bank reported its first quarter results, which showed a fall in pre-tax profits to $4.3bn (£2.68bn) from $4.9bn in the same period in 2011. .....Read more here