LONDON, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Britain's financial regulator saidon Monday that banks and other lenders paid out 354 millionpounds ($557 million) in September to compensate customersmis-sold loan insurance, the first monthly rise since April.
The payouts were an increase on the 313 million handed outin August and brought the total bill for the industry to 16.9billion pounds. Banks expect the bill for the mis-selling ofpayment protection insurance (PPI) to continue rising and haveset aside more than 23 billion pounds in total.
Lloyds Banking Group has set aside 11.3 billion,more than any other bank. Barclays, Royal Bank ofScotland and HSBC are also paying out billionsof pounds in compensation. The policies were supposed to protectborrowers against sickness or redundancy but were often sold tothose who would be ineligible to claim.(1 US dollar = 0.6352 British pound) (Reporting by Matt Scuffham; Editing by Steve Slater)