Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
New figures released by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show that total asset finance new business (primarily leasing and hire purchase) grew in March 2025 by 11% compared with the same month in 2024. In Q1 2025, new business was 5% higher than in Q1 2024. The business new car finance sector reported new…
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New research by ThinCats has found that mid-sized companies that borrow are sixteen times more likely to achieve growth than face insolvency. The data found that companies that borrowed were more likely to achieve growth than non-borrowers, with the level of borrowing proportional to growth potential. Nearly 40% of mid-market SMEs have achieved revenue growth…
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Despite an uncertain economy, applications for personal guarantee-backed business loans rose by 9% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2025. This is according to the Q1 2025 Personal Guarantee Insurance (PGI) Monitor from Purbeck Personal Guarantee Insurance, the UK’s only provider of PGI to SMEs. The 9% rise suggests that the appetite for finance remains…
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Research by Allica Bank has advised that the SME lending market needs a full reboot, with the UK having the lowest business investment rate in the G7. The report highlights how small businesses invest at only a third of the level of large corporate businesses, with a clear link between low levels of SME finance,…
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New figures released by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show that total asset finance new business (primarily leasing and hire purchase) grew in February 2025 by 1% compared with the same month in 2024. In the first two months of 2025, new business was 2% higher than in the same period in 2024. The…
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Time Finance has released new data that has found that businesses’ understandings, attitudes and behaviours towards commercial finance, with loans topping the bill as the most commonly and widely used form of finance. Figures found that 93% of UK businesses are aware of loans, in comparison to only 76% who are aware of Invoice Finance,…
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Gross lending to SMEs rose by 13 per cent year-on-year to just over £16 billion in 2024 according to latest UK Finance data. The research showed that in each quarter of last year gross lending was up compared to the same quarter in the previous year. However, lending remains significantly below levels reported in the…
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The Department for Business and Trade is launching a review into SME lending, due to the increase in the price of debt in recent years. Commenting on the Government’s publication of a call for evidence on SME access to finance, Emma Lovell, Lending Standards Board (LSB) Chief Executive, said “SMEs are the backbone of the…
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A Devon taxi driver who fraudulently claimed two maximum-value Covid loans by overstating his annual turnover by more than £350,000 has been jailed. Murat Dogantekin secured the Bounce Back Loans worth a combined £100,000 from two separate banks just months into the pandemic, when he was only actually entitled to just over £4,000 under the…
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More than a third (38%) of finance brokers say lower taxes are needed to boost SME growth this year, according to iwoca’s latest SME Expert Index. This is double the next choice of reforming business rates (19%). With almost three-quarters (70%) of finance brokers saying conditions for SMEs have worsened since the Labour Government took…
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A new EY ITEM Club forecast has predicted bank-to-business lending growth to increase from 2.9% in 2024 to 4.5% in 2025 – the highest rate since 2020 – and 5.6% in 2026 as borrowing rates continue to fall Bank lending to UK businesses grew by 2.9% in 2024, as falling interest rates boosted market confidence…
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There has been a six-month peak in the percentage of small businesses that need to secure funding or finance to move forward with their growth plans for early 2025 to 57%, up from 53% in spring 2024 according to new research by Novuna Business Finance. Following small business concerns over the hike in employer’s National…
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New research by Purbeck Insurance has found that the average personal guarantee-backed loan rose 9% to £174,000 in Quarter 4 (Q4) in 2024. In the final quarter of 2024, there was a 25% increase in small businesses applying for personal guarantee backed business loans compared to the same quarter of 2023. Indeed, for the whole…
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