LONDON, April 8 (Reuters) - Britain's biggest banks have sofar paid out less than 600 million pounds ($997 million) frommore than 4 billion pounds set aside to compensate small firmsmis-sold complex interest rate hedging products.
The Financial Conduct Authority said banks includingBarclays, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group were on track to hit adeadline to review all cases by the end of May.
The products were designed to protect smaller companiesagainst rising interest rates but, when rates fell, they had topay large bills, typically running to tens of thousands ofpounds. Companies also faced penalties to get out of the deals,which many said they had not been told about.
($1 = 0.6020 British Pounds) (Reporting by Matt Scuffham; Editing by Steve Slater)