Millions of consumers are paying too much for their Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) premiums while the Competition Commission investigates the industry, independent insurer British Insurance has claimed.

The commission must start “moving more quickly” in its investigation, objected Simon Burgess, British Insurance’s managing director.

The Office of Fair Trading referred the PPI sector to the Competition Commission for investigation on the grounds of allegations that providers were mis-selling products, failing to make it clear that they could opt-out of buying the product.

But Mr Burgess described the commission’s deadline of February 2009 for implementing remedial measures to tighten up practice in the industry as “unacceptable”.

“We’ve got to wait four months before the so-called ‘thinking’ document appears,” he protested.

In a recent report, consumer body Which? found that providers often sell PPI inappropriately to phone and internet customers, failing to clarify that the product is optional.

More than half the loan products its investigators sourced over the telephone automatically included PPI without checking whether the customer wanted it or not.

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