GP financial health check service launched

1st February 2017 Consumer Collections |

People in some of the most deprived areas of Glasgow and Dundee are being offered a new service where an appointment with their doctor could also see them referred to money and debt advisors within the same health-centre. Shelter Scotland has received £239,692 funding to pilot its ‘Healthy Finances’ project from the UK-wide Money Advice Service…

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Equifax and Flender agree partnership

1st February 2017 Commercial Credit Management |

Equifax has been appointed by new P2P lending platform Flender to support the underwriting of loans for UK SMEs. Equifax will supply real-time consumer and commercial data so that the underwriting process can be automated and optimised. The data insight, provided via the Equifax Business Insights solution, will give a holistic view of SME loan…

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UK insolvency levels will increase by 5%

1st February 2017 Commercial Credit Management |

UK business failures will rise by 5% in the next 12 months as the economic slowdown, rising input prices and increased late payment risks begin to take their toll, according to Euler Hermes. This is in sharp contrast with the rest of the continent, where insolvencies will fall by 4% in Western Europe and 1%…

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Late Payment government announcement welcomed by FPB

1st February 2017 Commercial Credit Management |

The Forum of Private Business (FPB) has welcomed the announcement from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) that late payment of small business invoices is to be a focus of the Minister for Business. They claim that the issuance of guidance to large businesses on how to pay on time is probably…

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Brightstar appoint new MD

1st February 2017 Consumer Collections |

Brightstar Financial has announced that Bradley Moore will become its new managing director. Moore co-founded the specialist distributor with CEO Rob Jupp and director Kit Thompson in 2011 – will also continue in his current role of running Brightstar’s second charge mortgage division and Bright Mortgage Services. Rob Jupp said  “Bradley has been with the…

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Surge in essential spending as concern mounts on inflation

1st February 2017 Consumer Collections |

The biggest rise in food and drink expenditure in over 40 months has driven consumers’ essential spending to its highest level of growth since September 2013, according to the latest Lloyds Bank Spending Power Report. Overall essential spending grew by 1.8% in December, a fourth consecutive month of positive growth. Lloyds Bank’s analysis of its…

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HMRC collects £178 million in crackdown on properties owned by corporate structures

1st February 2017 Commercial Credit Management |

The HMRC collected £178 million via its Annual Tax on Enveloped Dwellings (ATED) last year. This is up by £62 million (53%) on the amount collected the previous year, says Collyer Bristow, a leading private client law firm. Collyer Bristow explains that ATED was first introduced in April 2013 and is payable on high-value UK residential property…

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Household bills outnumber consumer credit debts

1st February 2017 Consumer Collections |

Responding to the Bank of England’s latest money and credit statistics Citizens Advice says rising consumer borrowing could lead to serious debt problems further down the line – but that it is household bills putting the pressure on people’s finances now. According to the Bank’s December 2016 figures, unsecured consumer credit is at its highest…

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Future of the credit market

1st February 2017 Industry opinion |

The UK’s credit market is undergoing radical change. As banks become more stringent about who they will lend to, people with poor or no credit ratings are being forced turning to new avenues for affordable loans to get them through life’s events. But how is this new wave of smaller regulated companies changing the way…

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13% rise in individual insolvencies in 2016

1st February 2017 Consumer Collections |

The latest Individual Personal Insolvency statistics from The Insolvency Service have been released indicating a 13% rise in individual insolvencies in 2016. The figures also show that in the last quarter of 2016 Individual insolvencies decreased compared with the previous quarter but were higher than in Q3 2015, driven by individual voluntary arrangements and debtor…

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Company insolvencies numbers broadly unchanged in 2016

1st February 2017 Commercial Credit Management |

The latest Corporate Insolvency statistics from The Insolvency Service have been released. The report shows that the total number of company insolvencies was higher in 2016 than the previous year, primarily caused by 1,796 connected personal service companies entering liquidation on the same date following changes to claimable expenses rules. The underlying number of company insolvencies…

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