Britain’s banking industry and the Financial Services Authority (FSA) are in talks to establish a cut-off date to end the costly stream of claims from the public relating to banks’ mis-selling of payment protection insurance (PPI), the Times reported.

The banks are facing a huge back-log of claims from the biggest mis-selling scandal in British banking history and the bill is likely to far exceed the Stg£12 billion pounds they have already put aside.

The newspaper cited industry sources as saying that the British Bankers’ Association had suggested a deadline of summer for claims to be made, in return for the banks agreeing to finance an ad campaign warning people of the new cut-off date.

The FSA is sympathetic to the banks’ concerns and a number of possible ways of implementing the deadline were being considered, the paper said.

Lloyds, which employs 6,000 people to process the claims, has already put aside Stg£5.3 billion to deal with the issue, although analysts expect that amount to rise.