YORKSHIRE Building Society has been fined £4.1 million for mishandling mortgage customers experiencing repayment difficulties.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has ruled that between October 2011 and July 2012, call handlers at Yorkshire Building Society (YBS) failed to deal properly with customers in order to identify promptly the cause of their problems and their future financial prospects.

These failures led to significant delays in determining the most appropriate payment solutions, the FCA said.

Although the Building Society viewed repossession as a last resort, the FCA said it failed to recognise that delays in reaching long-term payment solutions meant that some customers incurred increased fees and associated interest.

Alongside the £4.1 million fine YBS has a redress scheme underway in which around 33,900 customers will be repaid a total of £8.4 million.

YBS highlighted that the FCA had recognised it did not seek to gain financially as a result of its actions.

It also said the regulator had acknowledged that improvements had been made to the mutual's processes and that some of these were already underway before it raised its concerns.