Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
The winners of the 2021 Credit & Collection Technology Awards have been announced following a live in-person event yesterday (Thursday 4th November) at the Midland Hotel in Manchester. The awards are the flagship event for innovational technological professionals working in credit and collections and the fifth annual event honoured the UK’s technological innovators, celebrating outstanding…
Read more
New research from Mazars has shown that prosecutions of company directors for fraud tripled over the past year amid a crackdown on coronavirus loan scams, with 122 company directors convicted of crimes during the year to the end of September — a rise from 40 during the previous 12 months. The total points to a…
Read more
New research by iwoca’s has found that SMEs are turning to the Recovery Loan Scheme as they focus on company growth. The company’s Index reveals that over a third (35%) of brokers reported the top motivator for applying for unsecured finance was to ‘grow the business’ – a 12 percentage point increase from the previous…
Read more
Three directors have been banned following investigations which found that nearly £100,000 worth of Bounce Back loans had been inappropriately applied for, or misused following investigations by the Insolvency Service. The Bounce Back Loan (BBL) scheme ran to March 2021 and provided loans of up £50,000 to help businesses survive the impact of the Covid-19…
Read more
Despite a big increase in the amount of borrowing by businesses since the start of the pandemic, only 11% of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) say they are worried about their current level of business debt, according to new research from Lloyds Bank Business. The research, which polled SME business owners and decision-makers right across…
Read more
International SME financier, Bibby Financial Services (BFS) have announced the appointment of James Cooper as its new chief Technology Officer (CTO). Cooper previously held technology roles at Mothercare and financial advisory group, Rothschild and most recently was Chief Information Officer at BFS. In addition to Cooper’s appointment, Nicola Allard has been appointed as Head of…
Read more
Hampshire Trust Bank (HTB) has appointed Sally Wright as Head of Propositions for the specialist mortgages division. Wright joins HTB from Vida Homeloans to work alongside newly-appointed deputy Managing Director, Louisa Sedgwick who also joined this month to support the specialist lenders’ ambitious growth plans. Louisa Sedgwick, said “This is such an exciting time to…
Read more
The number of heavily indebted small businesses rose considerably over the course of the pandemic, the Bank of England has warned. Analysis by the Bank’s Financial Policy Committee has shown that debt taken on by SMEs rose by a quarter, with many companies which had not previously borrowed going into the red for the first…
Read more
New figures released by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show that total asset finance new business (primarily leasing and hire purchase) grew by 6% in August 2021 compared with the same month in 2020. In the eight months to August 2021, new business was 22% higher than in the same period in 2020. The…
Read more
Optimum Finance has announced that it has recruited the former Interim Small Business Commissioner (SBC) as a Non-Executive Director. Philip King, who was also the former Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Credit Management (CICM), is joining Optimum. King has worked in the credit industry for more than 40 years and is an acknowledged…
Read moreUnited Trust Bank (UTB) has announced two new appointments in its Asset Finance Credit team as it continues to break records for new written business. Gavin Mancey has joined the Bank as Underwriter and Daniel Idowu has been promoted to Underwriter having started in UTB’s Asset Finance Operations Team in 2018. Mancey has nearly 20…
Read more
Insolvency, credit and debt recovery software solutions provider, Aryza has announced the launch of a new SME Open Finance product called Vantage. Combing various data sets, Vantage is the first B2B2C platform that delivers actionable insights within a customer permissioned environment that allows all parties to benefit from its shared components. It offers a best-of-breed…
Read more
British businesses buoyed by the UK’s economic recovery have returned £1.3 billion in furlough cash, according to new statistics from the Government. The figures show that firms who have overclaimed or decided they no longer need payments received through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme handed back £300 million in the last three months. In total,…
Read more