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(Adds Bailey interview)
By Huw Jones
LONDON, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Britain's financial servicesindustry regulator has delayed its final decision on setting adeadline for consumers to claim compensation for being mis-solddebt repayment insurance.
Banks including Lloyds and RBS havecollectively paid out 24 billion pounds ($30 billion) in whathas become Britain's costliest financial services scandal.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) launched aconsultation in August on whether to effectively set a mid-2019deadline for people to make a claim for being mis-sold paymentprotection insurance (PPI), and was to decide by the end of thisyear on whether to proceed.
On Friday it said this decision has now been postponed untilthe first quarter of 2017, which could push back the finaldeadline for claims.
The FCA said it would make a further announcement some timein the first three months of 2017.
Any final decision would trigger a two-year countdown to thedeadline falling to allow for a publicity campaign to be run andmeaning it could affect the mid-2019 date initially indicated inAugust, leaving banks potentially exposed to claims for longer.
FCA Chief Executive Andrew Bailey said the watchdog hasreceived a "complete array" of feedback to its Augustconsultation, with banks wanting to move very quickly whileconsumer groups were pushing for much more time.
"It's deeply technical and we have got to get it right. Wewould have loved to hit the schedule... We are not going to rushit," Bailey told Reuters.
"It's sensible to assume that the extra time we take betweennow and when we get it out broadly rolls onto the wholetimetable."
"If we try to compress some later part of the timetable, wewould be taking risks with the process. It obviously affects alot of people," Bailey said.
Shares in RBS, Lloyds, Barclays and HSBC were all weaker in early trading, while the broader market wasslightly firmer.($1 = 0.7954 pounds) (Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Rachel Armstrong, GregMahlich)
