Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
It might be well known that the likelihood of recovering an invoice in full diminishes rapidly the longer it remains overdue, but businesses are too often finding that they have little power to affect this process despite their best efforts. Aged debt remains a significant challenge for SMEs currently, not just because it represents money…
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Open Banking is on its way. Nine major UK banks are launching their Open Banking APIs shortly after the New Year’s Day hangover has passed on January 13th 2018. From this date, brand new financial tools and services will launch designed to help consumers and businesses make better use of their bank account to save…
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As Christmas consumer spending heads towards its final hurdle, retailers will no doubt be hoping for a continuance of the slight uplift in sales as reported by the Office of National Statistics last week. Earlier this year, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and KPMG reported like-for-like sales across the sector rose by a “meagre” 0.6%…
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It has been quite some year for those of us working in debt advice – with debt hitting the headlines in a way not seen since the financial crisis, and services under pressure. If you’ve found it hard to keep track (like the rest of us!), here’s a round-up some of the key developments over…
Read moreThe impact that Christmas has on business depends on where you are in the world. In some countries like the US – Christmas is just one day. When you get to a country like Ireland, Christmas starts around the 1st December and ends sometime in the middle of January. To compound the problem for a…
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By the end of November, the UK’s largest companies and LLPs should have started submitting their first round of data concerning their payment policies, practices and performance. The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) introduced this half-yearly reporting cycle from 6 April 2017 with the explicit hope of reducing late payment to SMEs.…
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It has been reported in ‘Scottish Financial News’ that Scots who pay off outstanding debts could continue to be penalised because the authorities are not being informed of payments, the Registry Trust says. The warning comes from Malcolm Hurlston CBE, chairman of Registry Trust, the non-profit organisation which collects decree and judgement information from jurisdictions across the…
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As someone who works to bring together the money advice sector and the creditor community as Money Advice Liaison Manager at Nationwide, the Money Advice Liaison Group (MALG) is an important network for me and I was pleased to be involved in the organisation of this year’s conference. The theme of the MALG Conference 2017…
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The industry is, by now, fully aware of GDPR which provides new rights for consumers. The changes go live in 218 days and will enhance protection for consumers, but in doing so will present some challenges to the market place. We believe that some of the biggest challenges our industry will face are – Customers…
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In recent news, the rise in consumer default rates has the Bank of England (BoE) as well as the high street banks concerned about the health of the UK economy. The BoE has attributed this to the rising cost of living that is outpacing the increase in wage growth. However, this only considers the short…
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The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) has long had its sights on reducing variability in risk-weighted assets (RWAs). The Basel IV package of regulatory reforms proposed by BCBS will greatly increase the capital requirements of firms following the standardised approach to credit risk. Firms with significant concentrations of secured assets in higher risk segments…
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If you can’t afford to pay your tax bill in one go, the first thing to do is to make sure that the debt is reduced as far as possible by filing all outstanding tax returns, appealing against any penalties and making a claim to reduce payments on account where possible. If you still can’t…
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The Christmas period is almost upon us. It’s a time to be merry and dispense peace and goodwill to all men! It’s also, as this business report article on how Christmas can cripple cash flow, points out, one of the most dangerous times of the year to experience cashflow problems. How peaceful will you be…
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